Little White Flame
by Arsenoe
Summary: A story about a little girl who tries to find her purpose in life and answers to her questions with the leaf village supporting her. She'll cry, she'll laugh, she may even find love but one thing is for sure, she can't let those closest to her down and she must be strong if she is to fight off those that wish her harm.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi, so this is my first story! Please let me know how you like it. Also I don't own any of these characters except for Meng Ka and her mother. All of the other characters are from the anime Naruto. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy it.**

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The bright full moon was covered by the black smoke that was quickly rising higher in the sky, below it a small village, high in the sky, as adults screamed and children cried. Everywhere buildings were burning to the ground as the people of the village were slaughtered without mercy. Their village, already doomed to be whipped out as it was the last of their kind, had put up a brave fight for seven days and seven nights but tonight, they couldn't hold their front anymore and hardly anyone was left to fight off the enemy. But there was still one last hope for their village, a young woman ran through the burning buildings with a small bundle wrapped in her arms. The woman's auburn hair blew behind her as she raced through the village and to the edge of the cliff, which the village was on. The woman cried out as Shuriken flew into her back and she fell to her knees. Blood came from her mouth as she looked down at her daughter, still peacefully asleep in her arms. She was barely two years old but life wasn't fair and so the future of their crumpled village would rest in her hands. The woman kissed the girl's forehead and with shaking arms she put her down on the ground as a phoenix landed on her shoulder.

"I'm counting on you Tinktink. Get her safely to our dear friend, Hiruzen. He'll make sure she is taken care of." She petted the phoenix on the head and slipped a not into the bird's beak. Then with a flap of its firey wings, the phoenix flew off with the child secured safely on its back.

Suddenly a sword pierced right through the woman as she spat up more blood and smiled up at the sky, the phoenix already a red star in the sky and far away from the danger that was behind her. "You're too late, Orochimaru. You'll never know our village secrets." As the woman's eyes fluttered shut, she suddenly burst into flames, her body burning into ashes like the rest of the village.

Orochimaru hissed as he pulled his sword back and looked up at the sky, his pale face remaining emotionless as his minions raced past him, in a desperate attempt to catch up with the phoenix. However, Tinktink was too far and too high for even them to catch her at this point. Orochimaru's eyes narrowed as he watched the phoenix's fire fade off in the night sky.

Tinktink struggled as she flew through the sky, she was coming close to the end of her cycle and her once bright firey feathers were now quickly turning into burning ash as a light trail of smoke followed her over the village hidden in the leaves. She was almost there and with a cry she landed on the Hokage Residence's roof, right outside his office.

Hiruzen, the third Hokage of the village hidden in the leaves, turned at the noise outside his office window. He instantly rose and let Tinktink in, caring her over to his desk, "Quickly, get the head nurse!" He barked out orders one of the ninjas in the room as he laid Tinktink down and took the small girl from her back.

Tinktink was greatful for the old man and then suddenly she fell into a pile of ashes, startling the ninja who was still in the room. "Third Hokage, what is going on?" He asked in a worried tone.

Hiruzen raised his hand and gave him a reassuring smile, "It is the way of the phoenix, they never truly die; they are just reborn from their ashes. Watch and see." Just as he finished saying that, a smaller version of Tinktink poked her head out from the pile of ashes, the note from later in her small peak as she jumped out and shook off the ash.

Tinktink chirped after dropping the letter in Hiruzen's hand. The third Hokage looked at it as he read over it, shock and fear ran through his eyes as he read the letter but it was quickly placed with sadness at the knowledge of losing not only a good ally but also at losing good friends as well. He looked down at the young girl in his arm and ran a finger over the black markings ran across the top of her forehead and down the sides of her face and neck. Hiruzen knew the markings would run all the way down to her feet without breaking as it was the same for every child born in the Hakuen clan and now she was the last.

Just then there was a knock on the door, "Come in." Hiruzen called out and smiled as the ninja before returned with the head nurse coming in after him.

"Lord Hiruzen. Is everything alright?" She asked as she noticed the small child in Hiruzen's arms and the phoenix sitting atop a pile of ashes.

Hiruzen smiled and stood up, walking over to the elderly woman and carefully handing over the girl to the nurse. "Please see to it that she is looked after for a few days while I try and figure out who is to watch over her. She was given a sleeping potion and it should wear off soon."

The head nurse nodded her head, "Of course Lord Hiruzen but what do I tell her when she ask for her parents?" The nurse looked down at the girl uneasily, not looking forward to the answer she was about to reserve.

"They are dead." Hiruzen said in a sadden tone as Tinktink chirped as she flew over and landed on the woman's shoulder. "Ah, yes, this is Tinktink. She will help the best she can when the child wakes up." He said as he rubbed under the phoenix's chin.

The nurse bit her lip and made a move to turn around but stopped as she looked back at Hiruzen, "Lord? What is her name?" It would make talking to the girl a bit easier if she knew her name since calming down the child was going to be hard enough once she woke.

Hiruzen smiled, "Meng Ka. Now please make sure you have food and juice for her since she'll be hungry too." The nurse bowed her slightly in response and walked out of the Hokage's office. As the door shut, Hiruzen's smile fell into a frown as he walked back behind his desk and looked down at the pile of ashes.

"Lord Hiruzen, what was that all about?" One of the ninjas in the room asked as the two looked at their Hokage, lost for words.

Hiruzen remained quiet for some time as he was lost in thought, remembering his good friends who he now knew were dead. Lifting his head up to look at the two ninjas in front him, he sighed. "I am afraid that the village hidden in the phoenix flame is now in ruin and Meng Ka is the sole survivor."

**-Two Months Later-**

A high pitched squeal rang through the Hokage's office as Hiruzen picked up Meng Ka who had been running around the office with his Hokage hat on her head. Meng Ka giggled as Hiruzen blew on her stomach just as there was a knock on the door. Hiruzen blinked and set Meng Ka down as she hid behind him. "Come in."

Kakashi walked in through the door as Meng Ka peaked around Hiruzen to look up at the stranger. The only people Meng Ka has come to know in the village were the nurses, Hiruzen, Izumo and Kotetsu, so she was still a bit shy around strangers.

"Sorry I'm late; I was just finishing my last report." Kakashi smiled as he held out his report to Hiruzen. Who in turn just waved it off and went to sit behind his desk with Meng Ka still attached to his ropes. He set Meng Ka on his lap and ruffled her auburn curly hair.

"That's not what I called you here for, Kakashi. I'm going to assume you've already heard about the rumors going around the village." Hiruzen spoke gently knowing that Kakashi wasn't going to particularly like what he was about to tell him. Kakashi nodded as his dark blue eye meet Meng Ka's bright turquoise eyes. "Well then, some are true though I'd rather not talk about it in front of Meng Ka. But the reason I called you here so soon after your mission is because I want you to be Meng Ka's guardian from now on."

The room fell silent after Hiruzen was finished talking, Kakashi's face remained expressionless as he took in what the third Hokage was saying. "What?! I don't know how to take care of a child! Why me?!" Kakashi's usual calm composure broke as the weight of the situation finally dawned on him. He was barely into his twenties and dating was hard enough with all the mission he has been having to go on.

"Because, Kakashi, you are the only one I trust to protect Meng Ka." Hiruzen said in a serious tone, making Kakashi straighten a bit as he calmed down and gained control over himself.

With a defeated sigh, Kakashi nodded his head, "Of course, Lord Hiruzen. I will protect the girl, I'm sure you'll give me the details later."

Hiruzen chuckled and stood Meng Ka on the desk. "Come say hello to your god-daughter, Kakashi." He smiled as he motioned for Kakashi to come closer.

Meng Ka looked up at him curiously, tilting her head to the side as she wondered why his head band was on wrong. As Kakashi got closer he leaned down to her level and smiled, "Hello, Meng Ka."

Reaching out, Meng Ka took hold of his head band and pulled it up to straighten it but stopped as she saw his other eye, which Kakashi had slightly opened, shocked that she had pulled at his head band. Meng Ka screamed and turned around, hugging Hiruzen, "Scary eye! Scary eye!"

Hiruzen laughed as Kakashi looked dismayed and pulled his head band down back in place, this was going to be a long day. Well, he could always just take her to his mother; she would be thrilled to hear that she was a grandmother now. But then again, she would most likely lecture him and then try to send him to his room. He would just have to save that for the Hokage to explain later, let him take the heat of his mother rather than himself.

"It's alright Meng Ka, that's why I have it covered so that I don't scare people." Kakashi said as he tried smiling at the girl.

Meng Ka bit on her lip a bit once again before going over towards Kakashi and rested her hands on either side of his face. She seemed to be studying him as the two of them stared at each other for a few seconds and Meng Ka finally smiled, "Uncle!"

Kakashi was taken aback by her trustful nature and was quickly starting to understand why their third Hokage wanted him to take care of her. Smiling down at her he said, "Sure, I can be your Uncle, Meng Ka."

"Uncle Shi! Uncle Shi!" Meng Ka couldn't say Kakshi's name right yet but the two adults laughed at her new nickname for him and the two were soon heading out of the Hokage building, Tinktink flying down to land on top of Meng Ka's head.

**-Six Years Later-**

Meng Ka hummed to herself as she picked wild berries that grew in the forest around her home. It was early morning and Kakashi was off on some mission, so his mother would come and check on her, though she was never really in the house since she liked to be and around the villagers. Meng ka had a bit of trouble fitting in with other kids her age but the adults of the village took to her easily and she had even learned how to make treats and jams from the berries that she was picking.

Earlier that day, Meng Ka had finished training, even though she wasn't enrolled in the academy and actually she hated fighting. But it was the third Hokage's wish to have her train and control her chakra. Meng Ka hummed as she picked up one basket and put it on top of her head and then picked up the other one. Tinktink flew around her as she made her way out of the forest and up to her small cabin that she shared with Kakashi.

Walking inside she traded out one basket with another that was filled with jams and treats. She had made a small business for herself, trading the jams, treats and even the berries as well to the villagers. Going back outside, Tinktink landed on her shoulder as she hummed and made her way through the village.

As she walked down a street, Meng Ka was about to make her first stop when she heard a small bark. Turning around just in time to see a small white dog jump at her and landing in the basket she was holding in her arms, making Meng Ka lose her balance and fall over. Jars, treats and berries rolling all over the street.

"Akamaru!" A young boy with red marks on cheeks yelled as he ran up to them. "Are you ok?" He asked as he looked down at Meng Ka and helped her up, "I don't know what got into Akamaru. I'm sorry about that."

Meng Ka smiled and shook her head, "It's alright. He most likely just smelled the treats." A small blushed formed on Meng Ka's cheeks as she looked up at the boy.

Suddenly Tinktink yelled at Akamaru and puffed up her firey feathers at him, making Akamaru growl at Tinktink. "Tinktink!" Meng Ka quickly picked up the phoenix and scolded her. Tinktink only chirped and sat on Meng Ka's shoulder, still angry with Akamaru.

"Oh wow, that's a phoenix! I thought those were extinct." The boy claimed as he looked up at Tinktink with curiosity and wonder, having forgotten all about what Akamaru had done.

"Oh, yeah, she's been with me since as long as I can remember." Meng Ka shrugged, never really thinking of Tinktink as abnormal to have around. Meng Ka reached down to straighten one of the baskets.

Hey, let me help you with that! It was Akamaru's fault that you fell in the first place." The boy said as he bent down to help her pick up the jars and Akamaru whimpered beside them.

Meng Ka reached out and petted the white dog on the head, "Really it's alright. I always pack extra treats to give out. And you don't have to help; I know a quick and easy way to clean this up." Meng Ka said as she put her hands together.

The boy blinked and looked up at her, "How's that?"

"Like this." Meng Ka smiled and concentrated on the wind around them, and then quickly everything began to move back into the baskets, it was almost as if nothing had happened.

The boy stared at the two baskets, "How did you do that?!"

Meng Ka blushed, since that was something she had been doing for the past three years now and never really gave it a second thought, "Oh, well, I just manipulated the air around the objects and food."

"Cool! Here, let me help you with carrying these." He said as he lifted the heavier basket and smiled at her. "I'm Kiba by the way."

Meng Ka smiled and lifted the other basket, "I'm Meng Ka." The two kids smiled at each other as Tinktink and Akamaru rode on their backs as they walked around the village, Kiba helping her with her deliveries.

When the two baskets were empty, the two ended up getting lunch at Ichiraku ramen stand. Ichiraku would always give her a free bowl when she stopped by, not wanting the Meng Ka to starve.

"Shouldn't you be at school right now, Kiba?" Meng Ka asked as she ate some noodles and fed some of the vegetables to Tinktink.

Kiba swallowed what was in his mouth and smiled, "Nope, I just graduated!" He smiled widely at her and puffed out his chest a little with pride. "Aren't you the one who should be in school right now?"

Meng Ka giggled at his response but then shook her head, "I'm not enrolled in school. Uncle Kakashi and Asume over see my training. But right now, I get a little break." She ate some more noodles as Kiba looked at her from the corner of his eye, a bit shocked.

"Oh, well, would you like to hang out for the rest of the day?" Kiba asked as he finished his ramen.

Meng Ka looked back at him a bit shocked but then smiled and nodded her head, "Yes, I'd love to." Kiba smiled back as Akamaru barked in agreement.

"Alright, hurry and finish that and I'll show you were me and Akamaru train. You'll love it; it's in the forest not too far from the school." Kiba started to talk about where they were going as Meng Ka listened and finished her ramen and the four of them headed out to the forest.


	2. Chapter 2

"Uncle! Uncle!" Meng Ka yelled as she rolled around in the grass while Kiba tickled her without mercy. He finally stopped though and sat beside her, smiling while Meng Ka caught her breath and whipped the tears from her eyes.

"So are you excited about having Kurenai as a teacher?" Meng ka asked as she looked over at him.

Kiba shrugged, "I don't really know anything about her but I'm sure she'll be a better teacher than you shortie." He teased Meng Ka about the other day when she had tried to explain how she manipulated the air but only seemed to confuse Kiba more.

Meng Ka lightly punched Kiba on the arm and the two of them laughed a bit more before Tinktink chirped softly beside her. It was getting late and her grandmother would be over with dinner soon. "I need to get back home." She said a bit sadden.

Kiba nodded his head and stood up, helping her up as well. Meng Ka picked up Akamaru, the pup having quickly grown a liking to her since she had given him so many treats before.

"You're going to have him spoiled before I even get him fully trained." Kiba teased and ruffled Akamaru's fur, who in turned barked, making Kiba laugh.

"What did he say?" Meng Ka asked looking between the pup and the dog boy, curiously.

"Oh, he said as long as our mother was around he wouldn't." He chuckled and put his hands up behind his head as they continued to walk back into the village.

"Hey Meng Ka!" Called out Izumo and Kotetsu at the same time. The two looked at each other shocked a little but Kotetsu glared over at Izumo.

"I'm telling her the good news, Izumo!" Kotetsu said as he turned a smiling face towards Meng Ka.

"No, I'm telling her!" Izumo said as he wrapped his hand over Kotetsu's mouth and opening his but Kotetsu suddenly put Izumo in a head lock, making Izumo trip Kotetsu and the two fell over behind their desk at the front gate.

Meng Ka giggled and walked over to them while Kiba watched the two with a bewildered expression on his face. He had never seen these two act like this before but then again he didn't spend much time with the higher ups like Meng Ka seemed to.

"So what is that you wanted to tell me?" Meng Ka asked, knowing that would get their attention if anything.

Izumo huffed and threw his hands in the air, "Fine, Kotetsu, you can tell her." He plopped back down in his chair and pouted. Meng Ka smiled and pulled out what she had left over of her treats and handed it to Izumo. "Don't pout, Izumo."

"Hey! I want one." Kotetsu pretended to pout while Izumo gave him a smug look while he ate his treat.

Meng Ka waved a finger in front of Kotetsu, "Not until you tell me what you wanted to tell me."

Kotetsu smiled, "Kakashi is back-"

"Really?!" Meng Ka nearly yelled from excitement as Kakashi had been gone for about a fortnight now. She grabbed Kiba's hand and began to run back to her home, excited to see Kakashi.

"Hey! What about my treat, Meng Ka?!" Kotetsu yelled at her rapidly fading form.

"Thanks Izomu and Kotetsu! I'll stop by tomorrow!" Meng Ka yelled over her shoulder and turned a corner, running right into someone. Meng Ka almost fell over if it wasn't for Kiba who had caught her.

"You alright, Meng Ka?" Kiba asked as he checked on Akamaru who was still in her arms.

Meng Ka nodded and turned to look at who she had ran into, "Oh, I'm sorry Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon." Suddenly becoming a bit shy.

"Oh, it's you. Watch where you're going, freak!" Konohamaru said as he folded his arms across his chest.

"Yeah, why don't you go run and tell on us since that's all you're good at." Moegi said, putting her hands on her hips, while Udon sniffled a little.

"Oy, oy! Kid! That's no way to talk to someone." Kiba said as he took a step towards the trio, Akamaru barking his agreement.

Meng Ka reached out and touched his arm, pulling him back slightly, "It's alright, Kiba. They just don't understand, that's all."

"See! Talking as if we're the kids here. Well if you're so high and mighty, then dodge this!" Konohamaru said as he picked up a rock and threw it at her.

Kiba couldn't block the throw as he noticed it too late and Meng Ka just stood there as the rock flew through the air but suddenly stopped as it seemed to hit an invisible wall. Kiba looked at Meng Ka a bit shocked as the other three yelled out freak and walked away.

Meng Ka bit her lip as she held back a few tires and Akamaru turned in her arms, licking her cheek. She chuckled a little and petted him on the head, "Thanks, Akamaru."

Kiba shook his head, "Why do you let them treat you like that, Meng Ka?"

Meng Ka shrugged her shoulders, "I don't like to fight, plus they're right. I am better than them." She bit her lip and then realized how she sounded, "Not being cocky or anything! It's just actually true, that's why I'm not enrolled in school and get one on one training." A small blushed form on her cheeks as she tried to explain things to Kiba.

Kiba smiled and put his hand on her head, "Well, next time, I want to see your kick their ass."

"Kiba! That's so mean…" Her voice trialed off as Kiba laughed and Meng Ka smiled at him, his laughter contagious.

"Come on, Meng Ka. It's getting dark, best get you home quickly. So jump on my back." Kiba squatted down and let Meng Ka get on his back, Akamaru jumping down from her arms and Tinktink, flying in the air above them.

"Hang on tight!" Kiba said before he started to take off running. As he jumped from building to building, Meng Ka knew that she could easily have kept up with him but she liked to give him the illusion that he was stronger than her; he was after all, older than her.

Kiba landed in front of her home after she helped him in the right direction since he didn't know where she lived. Meng Ka jumped down from his back and smiled up at him, "Thanks Kiba."

Kiba smiled back and rubbed the back of his head, "It was nothing."

Suddenly Kiba was picked up into the air by the collar as Kakashi suddenly appeared behind him, "Is this boy bothering you Meng ka?"

"Uncle Shi!" Meng Ka called him by his nickname as she jumped on him, making him drop Kiba as she hugged Kakashi.

Kakashi chuckled, hugging her back and then letting her go as she landed on the ground in front of him. He put his hand on her head and seemed to be measuring how tall she is compared to him. "Have you grown again?"

Meng Ka rolled her eyes, "Uncle Shi, this is Kiba. He was just helping the time go by while I waited for you to come back home. He's a really nice friend."

Kakashi bent down to stare at Kiba, "Hmm, I see. Well, come in and clean up. You're dinner is getting cold."

"Ok. Bye, Kiba and thanks for the fun day." Meng Ka said as she hugged Kiba, who returned it.

"Yeah, you should hang out with me and my friends some time. You'll fit right in, shortie." He called her by the nickname he had already started to call her. Meng Ka laughed and waved to him as he turned and left with Akamaru right beside him.

"Awwww, please, Uncle Shi? I won't get in the way." Meng Ka pouted as Kakashi pulled her covers over her and sat down beside her on her bed.

"Meng Ka, you'll just be bored. They didn't seem like a very promising bunch when I met them today." Kakashi said as he tucked a curl behind Meng Ka's ear.

"Please? I won't get bored and if I do then I can always just leave." Then Meng Ka started to give him the puppy dog face as her eyes got a bit bigger and her bottom lip started to tremble, "You just got back." She said in a small voice that sounded like it was on the verge of tears.

Kakashi looked down at her and then sighed, "Fine. But you best not get in the way."

Meng Ka smiled and then yawned, "Oh, please. All they have to do is get your bells. That's easy." She wiggled underneath the covers getting comfortable and closed her eyes.

Kakashi chuckled and kissed her on the forehead, "Night, I'll see you bright and early."

**-The Next Morning-**

"Wake up, Uncle Shi!" Meng Ka yelled as she pulled on Kakashi's arm, trying to get him out of bed. She sighed when he didn't budge and then putting her head together, she concentrated a bit until suddenly a block of water came falling down on Kakashi.

Kakashi yelled as he sat up suddenly, looking around in alarm but then saw the innocently smiling Meng Ka next to him and glared over at her. Meng Ka rolled her eyes, "That ain't gunna work on me, Uncle Shi."

"Oh? Well then, I guess I'll just have to use my other eye…" Kakashi said as he opened his other eye, the Sharingan standing out against his scar that ran down the middle of his eye.

Meng Ka froze and then backed up a bit, "No, no. That's fine, Uncle Shi. I'll just finish breakfast!" She said as she ran out the door, making Kakashi chuckle.

"Some things just never change." He said softly as he got up to change and dry off.

"Uncle Shi? Why do you always read that stuff?" Meng Ka asked as she sat on Kakashi's shoulders and looked over his head at the book he was reading.

"Because, you ruined my chances of ever having a normal dating life, Meng Ka." Kakashi replied with a smirk.

Meng Ka pouted and covered her face in his white hair, "That was harsh, Uncle Shi…"

When the sound of others talking to each other reached her eyes, Meng Ka looked up to see three kids waiting for Kakashi. She recognized them as Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto.

"You're late!" Yelled Sakura and Naruto as the two of them came into view.

"Well, a black cat crossed my path." Kakashi lied as he smiled at the three of them.

Meng Ka looked down at him, "No it didn't. You just didn't want to wake up this morning, so you slept in and then your breakfast got cold."

Sakura and Naruto seemed to growl at Kakashi as he laughed slightly and then cleared his throat, walking over to the pieces of wood.

"Uh, sensi, who is that?" Sakura asked, pointing to Meng Ka.

"Oh, I'm Meng Ka! I'll be watching ya'll for entertainment." Meng Ka smiled up at them.

"What?!" Naruto yelled, "Entertainment?! This is serious training, not a place for little kids to play!"

Sakura hit Naruto on the head, "Shut up, Naruto! You don't have to be so rude! Sheesh, you're so annoying!"

Sasuke sighed and shook his head, all the while remaining quiet while the other two yelled at each other.

Meng Ka jumped down from Kakashi's shoulders and sat on the blocks of wood that were sticking out of the ground. She then took the clock from him and pushed the button on top of it.

Kakashi then pulled out two little bells, gaining the attention of the all three of his students, "Today's assignment is to take these bells away from me by noon. Those who can't do it won't get lunch."

Sakura yelped as Naruto's stomach growled but Kakashi kept going, "You'll be tied to that," He pointed to the wood that Meng Ka was sitting on with Tinktink now on her shoulder, the phoenix having gone hunting earlier that morning. "And I will eat my lunch right before you're very eyes."

The three looked rather annoyed and Meng Ka understood why, Kakashi had put her through the same thing as well. "Hey, wait a minute. Why are there only two bells?" Sakura asked, looking questionably up at her new sensei.

Kakashi smiled, "There are only two so that at least one of you will fail and be tied to the logs. That person will be disqualified for failing the mission and will return to the academy."

That got their attention as the trio looked on at Kakashi with determination. Meng Ka chuckled a bit, remembering when she had to do this with Tinktink and only one bell. Only Kakashi had threatened her with no ice cream for the rest of the year. It was a very delicious year.

As Kakashi began to explain more, Sakura and Naruto began to complain about the dangers of doing that. "Those who complain the most tend to be weaker. Oh well, just ignore the losers."

After he said that Naruto seemed to get very angry and before Kakashi could even say go, Naruto lunged at him with his kunai. Meng Ka watched Naruto a bit shocked that he would act so suddenly but then again, what she had heard about it shouldn't have really surprised her too much.

"Don't be so hasty, I didn't say start, yet." Kakashi said as he held Naruto and his Kunai to the back of his head. "Well, at least you came with the intent to kill." Kakashi chuckled as he let Naruto go, "I guess, I'm starting to like you guys. Alright, let's start!" He yelled as the three jumped away.

**-A Few Hours Later-**

"Well, you pass!" Kakashi said and Meng Ka smiled while the trio looked at him shocked. "You're the first to ever pass this test." He said a bit proud of them.

"Hey! What about us?!" Meng Ka asked glaring up at Kakashi, Tinktink chirping alongside her.

"You two don't count." Kakashi said, waving his hand, making Meng Ka and Tinktink a bit annoyed.

"What?!" Meng Ka yelled as she tackled Kakashi to the ground and sat on his back, pulling one of his legs up behind him, "It totally does count!"

Kakashi laughed at Meng Ka's childish behavior and let her and Tinktink vent it out a little. Once Meng Ka was bored with yelling at him, he picked her up and put her on her shoulders, "I'm still mad at you." She grumbled as she rested her head on his hair.

Kakashi chuckled as the trio looked at the two like they had just grown two heads. "Alright, everyone. Let's go home." Kakashi said as he turned around and started to walk away. Off in the distance, Meng Ka could hear Naruto yelling for them to let him go, making her smile a bit.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you to everyone who has been reading and to everyone that has written a review! I hope to hear more from ya'll and I hope you enjoy this new chapter. Sorry if it feels rushed at some point, my comp crashed and didn't save everything that I had done but thank you again for your reads and reviews!**

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The rays of the sun flickered across the village as the four companions walked down a street. The firey sun casting shadows against the dirt path as villagers began to clean up their shops and prepare for the day ahead of them. All was quiet as the shop keepers did their usual duties and kids were just woken up by their mothers to get ready for school. All was peaceful, that is, until Tinktink playfully nipped at Akamaru's head. The little pup barked loudly as he chased Tinktink to the gate opening where Shino, Hinata and Kurenai were waiting for Kiba to finally show up.

Meng Ka laughed at the two as Tinktink flew circles around Akamaru, who in turn, continued to bark and chase all in good fun. "So are you excited?" Meng Ka asked, hugging her bag closer to herself as she looked over at Kiba.

Kiba looked down at her and shrugged, "It really isn't much. We are just tracking down some people at the boarder who have been acting suspicious for the past few days. Akamaru will sniff them out in no time; we'll be back by lunch." Kiba smiled down at her.

Meng Ka rolled her eyes, "Just don't do anything without thinking about it first." She smiled knowingly up at Kiba who laughed nervously.

"Well, it's about time you showed up Kiba." Kurenai said as she put her hands on her hips.

Kiba froze and looked at a loss for words as he stared at his sensi, "Sorry, it was my fault, Kurenai." Meng Ka cut in as she smiled up at the woman.

Kurenai chuckled, "Kakashi already rubbing off on you huh? How have you been, Meng Ka?"

"I've been great; Kakashi hasn't left to go on any missions outside of the village for a few weeks now." Meng Ka smiled widely as she thought about all the time she's been able to spend with Kakashi. She was loving it, though she could tell that he was getting a bit restless not being able to go out on any challenging missions.

Kurenai smiled just as Shino cleared his throat. "Are you going to introduce us, Kiba?"

Kiba stared at Shino, not understanding what he was talking about but then the light bulb finally went off in his head, "Oh yeah! This is Meng Ka. Meng Ka, this is Shino and Hinata."

"Hi!" Meng Ka said as she waved at the two, Tinktink landing on her shoulder and chirped a bit, "This is Tinktink."

"Hello, it's nice to meet you, Meng Ka. But now we should be going." Shino said as he looked up at his Sensi.

"Wait! I brought ya'll a gift. Kind of as a have fun on your first mission outside of the village type of thing." Meng Ka rummaged through her bag and pulled out three small boxes, giving them to Hinata, Shino and Kurenai. "They're food pills. Just encase something unexpected happens. I made it specifically for your jutsu types, so it won't really help to share. Plus you shouldn't need all of them on this trip. They should last you a while, really."

"Thank you, Meng Ka" Hinata said in a small voice as she put her box away and then looked at Kiba, "Oh! What about Kiba's gift?"

"Hm? I already gave him and Akamaru there's. I felt bad for just making a gift for him so I made gifts for the whole team." She smiled at Hinata who nodded her head and looked away. Meng Ka then suddenly looked to her left just as an Anbu Black Ops member appeared beside her.

"Meng Ka, the Hokage wants you to spend the day with him. I'm to make sure you get there right away." He said through his mask.

Meng Ka sighed, "Can't I just play hooky, Tanzo?" She asked with a pout as she looked up at him.

Tanzo suddenly tensed, "Meng Ka! Be more careful when you say our names in front of people." He sighed as well and shook his head.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I forgot about that." Meng Ka smiled cheekily up at him and then turned to the others, "Well, I'll see you when you get back. Have fun." She waved just as Tanzo took a hold of her other hand and then they were gone.

"No! No more!" Naruto yelled as he glared over at the Hokage. Meng Ka giggled in her seat next to the Hokage. She liked Naruto, he was a pretty loud guy but his heart was in the right place.

The Hokage then went on a rant about how missions were decided for what level ninja but Naruto still fought him on his decision and pouted. Meng Ka zoned them out as she looked out the windows, daydreaming about owning her own shop one day. That's what she wanted to do with her life, she knew that the Hokage had other plans but she wasn't going to let that stop her. She hated to fight and even more so hated to take a life, it wasn't who she was. She'd rather save a life than destroy one, regardless of their intentions.

"Alright, but Meng Ka will have to go with you." The Hokage said bring Meng Ka from her daydream as she suddenly looked up at him.

"What?" Meng Ka, Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura asked at the same time. The Hokage only inhaled the smoke from his pip as he looked at the team in front of him.

"Meng Ka is not coming." Kakashi said as he looked at the Hokage.

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow at kakashi, "Why is that?"

"She's too young to be put in a situation like that." Kakashi said as he stood his ground, for once his calm demeanor suddenly having a crack in it.

"Meng Ka is a Jounin just like you Kakashi. She is more than capable of going on any mission, even on her own." Hiruzen said, irritation showing in his voice now as Kakashi shook his head.

"What?! Meng Ka is a Jounin?!" Naruto yelled pointing at her.

"How is that even possible?" Sakura asked as she looked at Meng Ka curiously.

Meng Ka on the other hand slouched down, wishing that she wasn't here right now. She really hated it when people found out her rank among the ninjas. She didn't care about her rank, she just wanted to open her shop and she was paid for going on missions so it was a way for her to save up. But she still tried to keep from doing any that would put her at risk of fighting. However, the Hokage always had other ideas.

"She shouldn't have gotten that rank in the fire place. She is too young for such responsibility." Kakashi spoke as he was still in a glaring match with the Hokage.

Hiruzen's eyes narrowed, "Meng Ka graduated top of her class without even going to the academy within one year because of your teachings. She also has mastered every elemental jutsu and it took almost two years before she surpassed the head nurse. Not only that but she has been sent on missions by herself before and has come back perfectly fine. This is just a simple protection against thugs and gangs mission. I just simply wish to let her have more experience since she is the most inexperienced jounin in ninja history. I also thought you would have agreed since she will be accompanying you as well. But if you don't want her to I can always send her on the 's' ranked mission, she is one of the better choices for it."

Kakashi tensed when he heard the last part of what the Hokage was saying and he shook his head, "No, she can come." He sighed and looked back at Meng Ka whose face was completely red by this point from embarrassment.

"Alright, you can come in now!" Called Hiruzen as he looked at the door behind the team.

An elderly man step through with a bottle in one hand. He drank a bit and insulted Naruto for his height before taking a swig from his bottle. He was clearly a bit tipsy but he was an adult so they really couldn't do much. Plus he wasn't that bad, it was just how he was really. "I'm Tazuna, veteran bridge builder. You'll be risking life and limb in guarding me to the max until I return to my home land and finish my bridge."

Meng Ka sighed as she sat on top of Kakashi's shoulders, "Couldn't you have said I was sick or something?" She asked as she pouted while resting her head on Kakashi's head.

"You were right there; you could have pitched in at any moment." Kakashi said as he put his hands in his pocket and walked down the street.

"Why does Hiruzen always have me do stuff like this anyways? I don't wunna be Hokage, it's too boring." Meng Ka mumbled.

Kakashi chuckled, "He's just trying to make sure you get educated. With talent like yours it's best that you know all your options."

Meng Ka sighed as they stopped at the gate, everyone already there. Naruto smiled and walked out a head of them, "Alright! Let's go! This is my first time outside of the village."

Everyone gave Naruto a look and then they were off, Meng Ka still on Kakashi's head but she had gotten down after a few hours and Tinktink landed on her shoulder just as they had passed by a random water puddle. Meng Ka tilted her head to the side as she looked at it but kept walking in the middle of the group as Naruto and Sakura kept arguing with one another.

Meng Ka yawned just as she heard someone running up behind them, she looked back just in time to see Kakashi wrapped in chains and then cut through him as he suddenly turned into a tree branch and it fell to the ground in pieces. Raising her eyebrow she looked up at the other two as they ran for Naruto now but Sasuke interfered, saving him. Even though they didn't like one another, they did seem to naturally fight together, even if Naruto was stuck in his place out of fear.

Suddenly the two split up, one going for Tazuna and the other going for Meng Ka. Narrowing her eyes at the guy she watched as Sakura and Sasuke took their positions in front of the man just before Kakashi close-lined the guy. Looking back at the other guy coming at her with his claws, Meng Ka fought the urge to roll her eyes. These guys were most likely the same rank as these three, it would have been better to have just let them fight them off and get their first battle out of the way. But Meng Ka wasn't going to argue as she dodged the guy's attack and then hit a series of pressure points on his body, making his arms fall limply by his side and then building up chakra in her hand she hit him right in the chest, throwing her chakra into him. He didn't move for a few seconds but then spat up some blood and fell back, unconscious.

Kakashi picked the guy up with the other still in his other arm, "Good job, Meng Ka." He said proudly as he looked at her and then told others they did a good job a well, expect for Naruto. "Sorry, I would have helped you sooner if I'd known you were incapable of moving." He told him as he walked over to a tree and tied them up.

"Don't move around so much, Naruto." Meng Ka called out to him as she noticed him getting irritated. "The claws have poison on them, so you don't want it to spread in your system. We'll need to get it out soon by opening the wound again." She smiled apologetic to the kid as she made her way to Kakashi. Naruto would be fine; the poison mustn't be that strong if it wasn't affecting him yet.

"Chunin from the village hidden in the mist?" Meng Ka asked as she tilted her head to the side and looked at the two.

"These guys are known to continuing to fight no matter what the sacrifice." Kakashi said as he looked at the two as well, answering Meng Ka's question.

The one awake looked up at him, "How did you detect our movements?"

"You left a puddle in the middle of the road. Not too hard to figure out when it hasn't rained all day." Meng Ka said as she put her hands on her hips and gave him a face that said, 'are you really asking that?'

Tazuna looked at Kakashi, "Knowing that, why did you leave it to the kids to fight?" he was still pretty pissed about having his life on the line just then.

"If I felt like it, I could kill these guys instantly. But I had to know, who the true target was." Kakashi said as he looked at Tazuna through the corner of his eye. Meng Ka nodded, having figured that out when Kakashi hadn't shown up halfway through the fight.

"Hm? What do you mean?" Tazuna asked, trying to play innocent as he avoided eye contact with Kakashi.

Kakashi turned to fully look at the guy, forcing eye contact, "In other words, what I mean is I had to know if it was you, or one of us, who was being targeted. We haven't heard anything about being targeted by ninjas. The content of the request was supposed to just be protection against gangs and thieves but this is a 'B' ranked mission or higher. If our enemies were supposed to be Ninjas, the mission would have been estimated without question would have been higher. Well, there must be a good reason for this but being lied to won't help us."

"This mission is too soon for us. Let's give up." Sakura said with a shrug as she looked rather relieved at the thought of going back home. "Naruto needs a doctor anyways."

Naruto looked angry when Sakura said that and suddenly pulled out his dagger to stab himself, reopening the wound as he glared at everyone. Meng Ka looked at him shocked, not understand why he would stab himself, all he needed to do was cut into the wound lightly and that would have been enough.

"It's all well and good to get the poison out but anymore of that and you'll bleed to death." Kakashi said as he looked at Naruto with a bit of shock and worry.

Right after he said that, Naruto started to freak out and wave his hand around. Meng Ka chuckled and walked up to Naruto, "Give me your hand." She reached out and took it but was shocked to see that the wound was already starting to heal. Looking at Kakashi, he just shrugged his shoulders and Meng Ka looked back up at Naruto, "You'll be just fine."

After wrapping his hand up, they all headed out again. Only this time the three inexperienced ninjas were on edge now that they knew that it was possible they would get into another fight with ninjas. They made it to the fiver without any thing happening and Meng Ka hopped in the boat, sitting at the front as she looked out through the fog, excited to almost be there. Once they were off, it turned out they had some more walking to do before they got to his village and home.

As they walked through the dirt road, Tinktink took off in the air to go hunting. Meng Ka looked up at her as she went by but kept walking in the middle with Kakashi behind her. He didn't want her to be on the outskirts of the group if they were attacked again. Kakashi may be a calm person but his fatherly side always came out when it came to her.

Suddenly Naruto started to try and show off and almost killed a white rabbit. Sakura gave him an ear full while Meng Ka shook her head. This kid was going to get them killed if he didn't start to act like a real ninja. Suddenly, there was a whooshing sound came from behind them. "Get down!" Kakashi yelled as he pulled Meng Ka close to him and fell to the ground, covering her with his body. Once the sword landed in a tree, a shirtless guy landed on the handle. Kakashi got up, pulling Meng Ka with him and putting her behind him.

Suddenly Naruto ran forward and tried to attack the guy but Kakashi stopped him, "This guy is a whole different level of ninja than the last ones."

"I assume you are the Sharingan user, Kakashi. Sorry but, I'll have you hand over the old man." The guy said up in the tree as he looked at them over his shoulder.

The group then got into formation in front of Tazuna while Meng Ka stood in front of them and behind Kakashi, who had pulled his hand band up, revealing his sharingan. Suddenly the air around them began to get misty as Zabuza jumped and landed on the water. He then suddenly disappeared into the mist.

Everyone was tense as they waited for him to reappear since they had no way of detecting where he was. Grinding her teeth together, Meng Ka looked around, not liking the situation at all. Zabuza soon showed himself, or rather his water clone but Kakashi was one step ahead of him that is until he landed in the water and got himself stuck in a water prison. Meng Ka killed a few water clones, giving Naruto and Sasuke their opening that they needed to help free Kakashi. Once he was, Kakashi used his sharingan to defeat Zabuza. However, an Anbu Black Ops member came and took him.

Meng Ka didn't like the situation and neither did Kakashi who was now resting in bed for a few days at the old man's place. Kakashi still had the three training, knowing it was important that they get as much in before they faced anymore ninjas but to their shock, when they were on the bridge Zabuza showed himself again, healed from his wounds as well.

Kakashi ordered Meng Ka and Sakura to stay with the old man and as they watched the battle, Meng ka bit on her lip drawing blood as she did her best to not interfere when Kakashi was in trouble. She knew he was a great ninja but it still didn't stop her from wanting to protect him when he was getting hurt. Plus the other ninja that had shown up with Zabuza was a great ninja as well, using an ice jutsu that she had never seen before. But in the end, they made it and the old guy was able to restore his bridge.

Yawning, Meng Ka rest her head on top of Kakashi's as he walked through the front gate. Tinktink flying around them as they made it slowly into the village, the three kids looking tired as they parted ways. Meng Ka got off of Kakashi's shoulders as he went to go give his report to the Hokage.

"I'll see you back home." He said as he ruffled her unruly hair and gave her a smile. He then handed her some money, "Go get yourself something to eat; I'll be a while in there because of all that had happened."

Meng Ka nodded her head, taking the money. "Ok, try not to be lectured too much." She smiled back at him and he chuckled as he walked away.

"Meng Ka!" Someone yelled behind her and she heard a pup barking.

Turning around she smiled and waved as she saw Kiba running up to her with Akamaru in his jacket. "Hi Kiba, Akamaru. How was your mission?"

Kiba stopped in front of her just as Akamaru jumped in her arms and licked her face, making Meng Ka laugh. "Are you alright? I heard that the Hokage had sent you off on a mission that was at a Jounin level." Kiba asked as he looked her over for any injuries.

"Yeah, I'm fine and he thought the mission would have been easy enough since the guy hadn't told the whole truth. Kakashi made sure we all came back safely." She petted Akamaru on the head just as her stomach growled a bit, making her blush.

Kiba laughed and flinched a little when Tinktink landed on his shoulder, still not used to her fire being perfectly harmless unless she wanted to hurt someone. "Come on, you can come eat dinner at my house. I'm sure my mother won't mind." He smiled and put his arm around her shoulder as they walked down the street to his home.

Meng Ka shyly came into the house as Kiba showed her in, showing her around the house before going into the kitchen, "Hey mom, I have a friend who is eating with us tonight. She just got back from a mission and is really hungry." Kiba said as he smiled up at his mom, Tinktink still on his shoulder.

Tsume turned around and was taken aback by seeing the phoenix on her son's shoulder but then looked behind him as a shy Meng Ka looked up at her while holding Akamaru who barked his agreement with Kiba. Tsume then slammed her spoon down and glared at Kiba, "You think you can just walk in here and demand that I make dinner for an extra person without any notice first! Well then, I would say that you have to make dinner now but I'd like to eat tonight and I don't feel like setting off any fires."

Kiba looked terrified as he nodded his head to his mother. Even Akamaru was hiding his head in Meng Ka's arms, who was now bluhing. She opened her mouth to say something but Tsume held her hand up and smiled "It's alright, dear. You can stay; I'd love to have you be our guest. You're Kakashi's little girl right?"

Meng Ka nodded her head, "Yes, Ma'am, I'm Meng Ka. I don't wunna be a bother to you."

"Not at all, it's my annoying son who is bothering." Tsume looked at at his son and narrowed her eyes at him. "Go on and wash up, dinner will be ready as soon as your sister gets in.

Kiba smiled and showed Meng Ka to the sink, letting her wash her hand and then sitting down next to her as his mother finished setting the table. Suddenly the door opened and in walked a tall girl with a straight ponytail and the same red tattoos that Kiba and his mother hand. She looked down at the three of them and smiled. "Hello Meng Ka. I didn't know you had gotten back already. How is Kakashi?" Hana said as she smiled at the girl and sat next to her mother.

"Hi, Hana. He's fine, a bit beat up but nothing that rest won't help." Meng Ka smiled up at Hana, having already met her once before.

"You two know each other?" Kiba asked as he handed Meng Ka a bowl of rice.

"Yes, I trained her for a few weeks in animal medicine. She took on to things very quickly and the Hokage only wanted her to get a basic training so she didn't stay for very long." Hana said as she looked down at her old trainee.

"That was about a year ago, I'm surprised you still remember since I wasn't around for long." Meng Ka said as she passed the tray of meat over to her.

"Oh, so you were that kid, huh." Tsume said as she ate some food. "Hana would brag about you all the time. The little genius, who had natural talent for animals. She was sad to see you go."

Hana smiled, "Yes, but I am glad that Akamaru has someone as talented as you on his team."

Meng Ka looked up at her shocked and Kiba looked at his sister confused, "Meng Ka isn't on my team. She never went to the academy."

"Hm?" Hana looked confused now but then realization hit her, "Oh, that's right. I keep forgetting that you're a Jounin."

Suddenly Kiba spit out what was in his mouth, "W-what?!" He asked as he looked over at Meng Ka.

Meng Ka blushed a deep red as this topic seemed to be coming up a lot lately. Sighing she nodded her head. Kiba looked at her a bit shocked still but then smiled, "That's awesome. Now I really want to see you kick those kids ass." He smiled and winked at her, making Meng Ka giggle.

After dinner, Meng Ka thanked them and Tsume wouldn't let her leave until she took some left overs to Kakashi. Kiba walked by her side as they made it over to her cabin, which was on the other side of the village. Once there, Kiba smiled down at Meng Ka. "You should stop by and watch us train sometime. I'm sure Shino and Hinata would be happy to see you. They really enjoyed the food pills."

Meng Ka smiled back up at him, "Of course, that'll be fun to watch."

"Meng Ka, there you are. I was wondering where you went. Oh, hello Kiba." Kakashi said as he walked up to the two of them, "Come on, it's almost bed time for you Meng Ka."

Meng Ka rolled her eyes but nodded her head, "I'll see you tomorrow, Kiba. Night Akamaru."

"Night Meng Ka." Kiba called as he and Akamaru headed back home and Meng Ka went to bed.


	4. Chapter 4

Meng Ka ducked as Hinata's gentle fist came flying at her and she kicked her feet out from under her. Hinata yelped as she fell down on her back and looked up at Meng Ka dismayed. "Come on, Hinata. Don't give up, you're getting better." Meng Ka said as she held out her hand to her.

Hinata took it and stood up, "Am I really?" She asked in a small voice.

"Yeah. You may not see it since it's a very slow progress for you but you are getting better. Why just a month ago when we first started training I didn't have to move as fast as I just did to dodge your attack." Meng Ka said, trying to be encouraging but it wasn't having the effect she thought it would.

"Oh, so I'm not getting that much better." Hinata said as she frowned and looked down.

Meng Ka sighed just as Kiba burst through the bushes with Akamaru beside him. Meng Ka laughed as they tackled her to the ground. The three of them rolled around for a bit as Tinktink rested on Hinata's shoulder. Kiba and Meng Ka laughed as they finished rolling around and Meng Ka ened up pinning him down with Akamaru on her side.

"Hey! Akamaru! You traitor." Kiba said as he smiled up at the two.

"Ha! The shortie wins!" Meng Ka said, using Kiba's nickname for her and smiling down at him. "Huh?" Meng Ka looked down as she noticed a bug land on her hand, "Where did you come from?" She asked as she held it up to eye level and then screamed when she was suddenly covered in them. Rolling off of Kiba as he laughed at her and Shino came out.

"A ninja should never let their guard down." Shino said as he called his bugs back and Meng Ka laughed.

She had known that' what the bug was for since she had been helping them train for a while now but she liked to let them feel like they had gotten her off her guard. She really did enjoy training with them, though she did still train with Naruto's team as well sometimes. They were a fun bunch to train with too as they were always trying to best each other while Sakura was just trying to get Sasuke's attention.

The four of them trained a bit longer before Kurenai walked into view. They stopped what they were doing and smiled as she waved them down. "Hello, Hinata, Shino, Kiba and Meng Ka. I have something very important to tell you. I just entered all of you into the Chunin exams." She smiled at the three in front of her as Meng Ka chuckled.

Kiba and Akamaru seemed very excited while Shino's expression didn't change but Hinata seemed a bit worried. "You know what this means. Time to start training double time. Would you like to keep helping Meng Ka?" Kurenai asked as she looked over at the girl.

Meng Ka shook her head, "Maybe later. I need to go help Kakashi with his team. I'm sure they'll be a handful now that they're entered as well." She smiled and waved at the group as she left, going to find the three of them.

She soon found them talking to some other ninjas that must have come for the exam. She called out to them as she ran up and smiled, "Congrats on getting the exam! Kakashi is going to drill ya'll real hard now." Sakura sighed as Naruto continued to glare at the three in front of them.

Meng Ka turned around and sized the three up in front of her but then smiled as she noticed they were from the sand village. "Hi!" She said as she came up to them and smiled. "I'm Meng Ka and welcome to the Leaf village. Are you from the Sand village?"

"Ugh, freak, no one cares." Konohamaru said as he stopped hiding behind Naruto and his friends backed him up by agreeing with him.

"Hey! That's no way to talk to Meng Ka!" Naruto said while Sakura scolded them.

Meng Ka looked back over her shoulder and bit her lip, nervously. The reason they didn't like her so much was mostly because of this very reason. The adults always took her side and always scolded them.

"I'm Gaara." Meng Ka heard someone say in front of her and she turned her head back around to look at the red head who had spoken. The other two beside him looked shocked as they looked at him, fear evident in their eyes.

Tinktink suddenly puffed up her chest and Meng Ka came out of her daze, his eyes having caught her attention the most. "Oh, this is Tinktink as well." She smiled up at them as Gaara nodded his head.

"This is Kankurō and Temari." Gaara said as he motioned towards the two by his side who still seemed very shocked by his actions.

"Well, good luck with the chunin exams. They're a pain in the butt but you gotta do what you gotta do." Meng Ka shrugged and waved as they turned to walk away, "It was nice meeting you Gaara!" She called after them.

Gaara turned his head to look back at her and nodded his head in a silent response. Meng Ka turned to look back at the others behind who were looking at her with shocked faces now as well. "What?" She asked confused.

"Well, he just seemed like a completely different person when you talked with him." Sakura said as she looked back at the trio walking away.

"Yeah, I was ready to rip that guy's head off with his insults." Naruto said.

"Freaks just get along with other freaks." Konohamaru said as he crossed his arms.

"Hey!" Naruto yelled as he hit Konohamaru on the head and Sakura started to lecture him again. Meng Ka shook her head and walked away from the group, not wanting to get in the middle of things. She found it best to avoid Konohamaru and his friends; it just made her life easier. The kid was just jealous of the attention his grandpa showed in Meng Ka, even though he would never admit it and Meng Ka never asked for his attention.

She honestly just saw the third Hokage as her own grandpa as well, since he had always taken the time to let her visit him and he had even taken her out with Konohamaru a few times when they were younger to spend time with each other. He didn't want them to be fighting with each other but with their age, it was hard not to.

-Few Days Later—

Meng Ka sat on Kakashi's shoulders as they stood in front of the remaining groups. She smiled at Kakashi's team and waved over at Gaara when she saw him a well. Looking around a bit more she also Kiba and his team, Meng Ka waved at them as well, happy to see that they had gotten through.

Then the Judge started to talk about the preliminary fight since there were too many of them advancing towards the final fight. Many of them didn't like the idea of it but it was necessary and needed to be done. The same thing had happened during her chunin exam and she sure didn't like the idea of having to fight after making it to this point. In fact, during her chunin exam she was a one man team. Since she hadn't gone to the academy and had been personally by Kakashi and Asume, she didn't have a team. Well, Kakashi and Asume were her team but they couldn't go through the chunin exams since they were jounin.

The girl who was in charge of the exam turned to Kakashi, "You shouldn't let him fight." She said referring to Sasuke.

"He'll be alright." Kakashi said, shrugging. The girl started to go on a rant and Kakashi sighed, looking up at Meng Ka who was trying not to laugh at Kakashi's suffering. He reached up and poked her side, making her giggle as she tried to keep his hand away. The girl got even more irritated at the two as they were clearly not paying attention and started to bug the Hokage.

Meng Ka giggled quietly but then sneezed as she noticed the smell of smoke and she noticed Asume a little ways in the distance with his cigarette in his mouth. She smirked and concentrated on the fire in his cigarette and then smiled proudly when it went out and Asume looked at it before turning to look at Meng Ka. Meng Ka smiled innocently and Asume glared at her, flicking his cigarette over at her but Kakashi caught it in his hand, waving a finger at an amused Asume.

"Yoroi vs Sasuke!" Called out the judge, bring the three's attention back onto the situation before them. Meng Ka looked between the two and smiled as Kakashi began to walk forward stopping behind Sasuke.

"Sasuke. Don't use your sharingan. If the curse mark gets out of control, it could endanger your life." Kakashi said, warning Sasuke since he knew he couldn't keep him from fighting.

"I believe that." Sasuke replied, still looking forward as he took Kakashi's advice to heart.

"Well, I'll be coming in to stop it at that point. Good luck with the match." Kakashi said as he continued to walk away with the other two following them as they went up the stairs and to the side.

Meng Ka jumped off of his shoulders as Tinktink landed on the railing beside her. "I'm glad to see that you made it this far, Kiba." She said as he came up beside, Akamaru hiding a little in his jacket.

"Yeah, it was easy." Kiba said with a smile and a wave of his.

Meng Ka raised an eyebrow and took Akamaru from his jacket and feed him a small treat, "Akamaru seemed to think otherwise." She said softly, not looking up at Kiba.

Kiba was startled a bit at Meng Ka's insight but he was getting used to it, plus Akamaru wasn't really hiding his fear. "Yeah, the one called Gaara really scared him. His chakra level is massive." He said as he rubbed Akamaru's head.

"Hm?" Meng Ka looked up to look at Gaara. She knew he was powerful, she felt it when she had ran into him the first time. "He didn't seem all that mean when I met him." She commented, still petting Akamaru.

Kiba looked at her sharply, "He's dangerous Meng Ka. For your own safety, I don't want you going around him." A low growl coming from him as he looked back over at Gaara.

Meng Ka tilted her head to the side, still looking at Gaara. She really did like his eyes and he was the only other ninja she had ever met who had red hair like she did. Looking back at Kiba, she could tell how much he unsettled him and nodded her head, "I'll try my best." She smiled up at him.

Kiba looked back down at her and relaxed a bit, giving her a small smile just as the battle started. Then it was battle after battle as they all fought against each other. Many of them they had to interfere to keep someone from getting killed and even Meng Ka jumped in on the ones between Hinata vs Neji and Lee vs Gaara. As soon as she had seen what Gaara was doing she jumped in as fast as she could, her wind shield blocking out Gaara's sand attack but not in time to save Lee.

Finally it was all over and only ten remained but they were all a bit dismayed when they were told that the final matched wouldn't happen until a month has passed. Meng Ka squealed as Asume came up behind her and picked her up, slinging her over his shoulder. "Kakashi. I thought I'd take this brat off your hands for a little while."

"I'm not a brat!" Meng Ka yelled as she hit him on the back.

Kakashi chuckled, "I couldn't be any happier at the thought. Though, what are you planning on doing with her?"

"I just promised my team I would take them out to BBQ and figured it had been a while since I had treated Meng Ka to something as well. Plus she hasn't really met my new team yet, it's about time that she did." Asume said as Meng Ka positioned herself on his shoulders and smiled over at Kakashi.

Kakashi shook his head, "Fine but don't spoil her."

"Yay!" Meng Ka said as Asume laughed and walked out with his team following behind him.


	5. Chapter 5

"Awwww but why?" Meng Ka groaned as she leaned against the hokage's desk, resting her head in her hands with a small pout.

Hiruzen looked up from the paper he was reading over and raised an eyebrow at the girl and he suddenly wondered how she had gotten to be so big. Wasn't it just yesterday she was standing on his desk meeting Kakashi for the first time? Shaking his he looked at the young eight year old before him with her turquoise eyes and red lips in the form of a frown. She still had many years ahead of her and she didn't even know that life had already decided her destiny for her.

Hiruzen sighed and set the paper down, "Meng Ka, dear. It's important that you learn these things. They could save your life one day."

Meng Ka put her hands on her hips, sticking a hip off to the side as she pressed her lips in a thin line, "How is meeting another Hokage going to save my life? Besides, it's the final part of the exam! I wunna watch it with my friends."

Taking the pipe from his hands, he empty the contents from it, then refilled it and lit it once against. Leaning back in his chair he looked at Meng Ka again and blew a small puff of smoke towards the open window. "Where is Tinktink?"

A shocked expression crossed Meng Ka's face as she looked up at the third Hokage, "She's out flying around. She's been feeling a bit uneasy all day today but she won't tell me why." Meng Ka moussed over the morning events as she had woken from another nightmare to find Tinktink gone. After running around the house in a panic, Tinktink showed up lost in thought and destracted. Tinktink even flew off without even telling her where she was going. "I'm a bit worried about her, actually."

Hiruzen smiled softly at Meng Ka as he gestured for her to come over. Meng Ka walked over to him and sat in his lap as he took a deep breath from his pipe and blew out smoke circles. "Hmm, don't worry. I'm sure she'll show up soon enough but you're still going to watch the final by my side and meet the Kazekage of the wind village."

Meng Ka rolled her eyes and thought for a few seconds, "How about I meet the old guy and then go join my friends." She smiled up at Hiruzen.

Looking down at Meng Ka's smile, Hiruzen sighed. "Fine but when you see Kakashi give him an earful for me as well." He winked down at the girl who giggled and nodded.

"For sure I will! Thanks, gramps!" She said as she kissed him on the cheek and then left, running out the door. Looking around, Meng Ka decided to go tell Hinata and Kiba the good news. Running out to the place that she knew they would be, Meng Ka suddenly stopped as she noticed a presence. Forwarding her brows she looked around, something wasn't right.

Looking up at the building in front of her, she noticed that it was the hospital. Tilting her head to the side she walked in slowly, looking around. This feeling, it was somewhat familiar, like she had felt it before. Thinking back, she wondered just what was it that she had been feeling. It was dangerous, she knew that but it was also something else, like it felt like two presences. One was trying to overpower the other, to put it in other words. Standing in the middle of the lobby, Meng Ka concentrated on the feeling. She then stretched out her chakra, looking for the source of the feeling.

Suddenly, realization hit her as to when she had felt this before. It was back when she met Gaara and then again when he was fighting with Lee, only it was stronger that time just like it was now. Getting a lock on the location, Meng Ka quickly made her way there. Just in time too as she ended up blocking yet again one of Gaara's sand attacks.

"Meng Ka!" Naruto and Shikamaru said at the same time but Meng Ka put up a hand and shook her head.

"You're shadow jutsu does not matter to him, Shikamaru. He doesn't have to move to control the sand around him. Don't waste your energy." Meng Ka then looked back at Gaara and put herself in between him and the others.

"Just like you don't have to move to control the wind around you." Gaara spoke smoothly as he gazed at Meng Ka, his sand already flowing back in its place.

"You're not alone, Gaara. We all have our own problems to deal with in life." Meng Ka said as she kept eye contact with Gaara.

Gaara laughed as his eyes got bigger and he smiled at her, "I have a monster in me that wants to do nothing but kill everyone. When I kill, I feel alive and if that means killing all of you then I will do it!" he yelled as sand suddenly burst forth and Meng Ka sighed.

Setting her wind shield around the other three in the room, Meng Ka jumped forward, parting the sand with her chakra as she came straight for him, right past his sand shield. He gazed at her in shock as she came at him but instead of hitting him, she hugged him. Everything was still as she held onto him; her legs wrapped around his waist as she hugged him close and then whispered, "I know your dark secret, Gaara. I've been there. The one tailed is the monster, not you. Be at peace my friend and go get ready for the match tomorrow."

"Meng Ka! What are you crazy?!" Naruto was yelling as she spoke to him and even Shikamaru was yelling at her as well, "You idiot! Get away from him, he'll kill you!"

Meng Ka chuckled and smiled up at Gaara before letting him go. Gaara stood there and seemed to be in a daze as his sand came back to him and he walked to the door but stopped and looked back at them, "I'll still kill all of you…one day." He said and then left.

Meng Ka let out the breath she had been holding, "Good, I don't know what I would have done if that didn't work on him." She smiled at the other two who were staring at her with angry expressions.

"Geez, you idiot. You're worse than Naruto." Shikamaru said as he folded his arms across his chest. "What were you thinking?"

"Meng Ka! You could have been killed. Kakashi would kill me if he knew I was here and wasn't able to stop you!" Naruto yelled as he stared at Meng Ka, a bit amazing at just how strong she really was.

Meng Ka smiled and nodded her head, "Well, I should get going then." She waved and then put her hands on front of her and disappeared, that Meng Ka having been a shadow clone.

On the other side of the village Meng Ka dodged an attack from Hinata and then laughed. Hinata looked at her confused while Kiba, Akamaru and Tinktink looked at her as well. "Sorry, my clone just came back with some funny information." She apologized to Hinata and then motioned for her to continue.

"Hey, Meng Ka. Can I pull out one of Tinktink's feathers?" Kiba asked suddenly halfway through their fight.

"What?!" Meng Ka yelled as she looked at Kiba just as Hinata suddenly hit her right in the middle of her chest. Meng Ka looked back at Hinata shocked but as Kiba's laughter caught her ears she smiled and laughed herself.

"I-i-I'm sorry, Meng Ka!" Hinata said as she looked at her hocked herself that she had hit her.

"It's Meng Ka's fault! Never let your guard down." Kiba said as he laughed some more. Meng Ka looked over at him and smirked.

She suddenly jumped forward and Kiba who was too busy laughing couldn't dodge her in time as she tacked him off the fallen log. The two of them rolled around in the grass as Hinata, Tinktink and Akamaru watched the two.

After a while, the two soon ran out of breath from laughing and yelling at each other and they settled down in the grass. Hinata came over with the other two and Meng Ka smiled up at them, "Come on and cloud watch with us."

Hinata smiled, "Ok." She laid down next to Meng Ka as Akamaru jumped on top of Meng Ka and Tinktink sat on top of Kiba. The three of them of them pointed out clouds for a little while and even Shino joined them but he stayed quiet for most of it.

"Come on!" Meng Ka said as she walked around all over the area that the Hokage was to sit and watch. Meng Ka sighed as she got impatient for the Kazekage to show up as she leaned against the railing showing the battle field.

"He'll be here soon. Now I want you to be on your best behavior." Hiruzen said as he watched Meng Ka fidget with her white cotton dress. The only thing she had on it was the leaf headband which was wrapped around her waist.

Suddenly, Meng Ka heard people walking up and Meng Ka smiled as she ran over and shook the Kazekage's hand. "Hi, I'm Meng Ka. Nice to meet you Mr. Kazekage. Here, sit down. Relax, have a drink. I'm sure you and the old guy have a lot to talk about. So I'll just be going. Ok, bye." Meng Ka said quickly as she pushed the Kazekage to his seat and sat him down then shook his hand again before turning around to leave when Hiruzen cleared his throat.

Hiruzen motioned for her to come closer and he stood up behind her, "Kazekage, this is Meng Ka Hakuen. She is the last of the village hidden in the phoenix flame as well as the last of the Hakuen clan. I'm sure you remember when I first contacted you about her."

The Kazekage looked down at Meng Ka, making her fidget more as she didn't really like the guy. "Yes, of course. We discussed her coming to my land and train."

"What?!" Meng Ka said as she looked up at Hiruzen, "You wunna tell me something?"

Hiruzen gave her a small pinch before he looked back up at the Kazekage, "Yes, but as you can see she is doing just fine with her training here. I'm sure when she is older, she'll be more than happy to come and visit."

"Yeah, much older." Meng Ka said as she crossed her arms and glared at the Kazekage.

The Kazekage watched her the whole time and then laughed, "Of course. In time you will come and train underneath me, child."

"Can I go now?" Meng Ka asked as she looked up at Hiruzen who sighed and nodded his head. Realizing that she was just get even more annoying if he didn't let her go. With a yelp of excitement she ran for the railing and with a sharp whistle she jumped down and landed softly on Tinktink's back. Tinktink had been with Hinata and Kiba, so she knew where they were sitting.

"Hi ya'll!" Meng Ka said as Tinktink got close and she jumped onto the steps. Smiling at the two of them she sat down next to Kiba on the edge.

"Well, Izumo. Seems we're not special enough to get a hello from the little queen." Kotetsu said as he nudged him in the ribs and looked over at Meng Ka.

Meng Ka looked to see who was talking and smiled, excited to see the two of them. "Hello Izumo and Kotetsu! Of course you're special enough to get a hello. I'll even throw in a hug!" She said as she jumped over to them and gave the two of them a hug. They laughed and Meng Ka took her seat next to Kiba once again.

The match finally started and both Kiba and Meng Ka were on the edge of their seats cheering Naruto on as he fought against Neji. When he won the two of them were going crazy and even tried to get Hinata to join them in their cheering but she was too shy for their wild actions. As the other matches went on, they chatted about all of them. They were all wondering where sasuke was and all Meng ka knew was that he was with Kakashi.

Kiba and Meng Ka both stopped talking quickly when they noticed Hinata having a hard time. Meng Ka quickly checked her and was a bit alarmed when she felt the uneven beats of her heart. Kiba and her quickly helped Hinata up the stairs but she passed out before they could even get her to the top. An Anbu Black Ops member came over and helped them out but Meng Ka was a bit suspicious of him since she didn't recognize him.

Going back to sit down, Meng Ka sees Kakashi finally showed up. Kiba held Meng Ka back as she was about to give Kakashi an ear full just like Hiruzen had told her to do. The two soon settled down as the match began but soon Meng Ka started to see feathers falling and as she looked around she noticed people falling asleep. Quickly she released herself from the Genjutsu and stood up looking around.

"Uncle Shi!" She called out as she went down the stairs to him and hugged him close to her. "What's going on?"

"It seems we are under attack Meng Ka." Kakashi said as he rubbed her shoulder and hugged her close with one arm.

"Look up at the roof where the Hokage is." Guy said, pointing to the building that Meng Ka had been on only hours ago.

"It's Orochimaru." Kakashi said as the two of them looked at each other and then down at Meng Ka. "Meng Ka, I need you to stay close to me but go upstairs and help protect your sleeping friends and wake them up as well. You too Sakura."

Sakura looked at Kakashi startled but nodded. "Alright, Sakura I have your back while you wake them up then." Meng Ka said as she let Kakashi go and the two of them went to work waking everyone while blocked attacks and sent them on their way to Kakashi or Guy to handle.

Just when Sakura was done waking up Naruto and Shikamaru a ninja got past Meng Ka and was about to attack Naruto until Guy suddenly smashed him through the wall. Landing next to him, she smiled, "Thanks Guy. I wasn't fast enough to get to him."

Guy smiled down at her, "You just need to grow some more and train! Never give up!" Guy gave her the thumbs up and luckily Kakashi saved her as he started to give them orders, Pakkun bit down on Shikamaru to get him to get up as the four of them jumped out of the whole guy made in pursuit to get Sasuke back since he was following Gaara, wanting to end his fight.

"Ugh, for once I agree with you Shikamaru. This is such a pain." Meng Ka said, looking back at Shikamaru as they followed Pakkun.


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you to everyone who has been reading! Sorry about this taking so long, I just needed to update my other stories on Wattpad. But I hope you enjoy this and I hope to update again soon. Also thank you Sagemode101 for all the reviews, I really appreciate them.**

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As they raced after Sasuke, Pakkun had them stop and retrace their steps to throw off the ninjas that were following them to try and stop them. But why would they want to stop them from getting their friend back was something that was worrying Meng Ka as she followed the group in silence, Tinktink flying next to her. Looking over her shoulder she watched Tinktink as she seemed to be lost in thought as well. Tinktink must have sensed that something wasn't right, that's why she had been acting so strange all day but what was it that she wasn't telling her.

"Meng Ka! Don't fall behind, kid." Pakkun yelled back at her as she had slowed down a bit, having gotten lost in thought. Looking up, she sped up faster as she caught back up to them and sighed. She didn't know why she had to go with them but Kakashi had his reasons, most likely thinking she was safer away from the fight that the Hokage was in.

"This is not good. They're catching up with us." Pakkun said as they raced through the trees.

"What?! Why don't we just ambush them?" Naruto said, getting angry with each passing minute.

"They must all be Chunin or higher." Shikamaru said as he looked at the three of them and Meng Ka bit down on her lip slightly as she thought about what they could do.

"Yes, an ambush would be to our advantage even though we are outnumbered." Sakura said as she agreed with Naruto about the ambush.

"No, an ambush wouldn't work. From their tracking skills they must be at the shinobi level by now." Meng Ka said as she shook her head,

"They're former leaf shinobi, Orochimaru's henchmen." Pakkun said, confirming what Meng Ka said. "In worst case scenario, they might be jonin."

"I thought it'd work but I guess not." Shikamaru said frustrated now since he had to do more work.

"But why?" Sakura asked. "The skill level of a ninja doesn't matter much in an ambush."

Naruto nodded his head, "What do you guys mean?"

"You guys don't get it." Shikamaru said, annoyed with them now. "An ambush is a very fundamental tactic. But two conditions are necessary. Number one. The ones on the run must act without making noise and find the enemy first. Number two. One must be able to catch the pursuers off guard, capture a point and position to be able to inflict certain damage, and conceal oneself quickly. An ambush only becomes effective when these two conditions are ensured."

Meng Ka nodded her head, "The first one wouldn't be too hard since we have Pakkun who can guide us to them. And the second one seems advantageous at a glance since we know the geography of our village. But Orochimaru has spent time in the Leaf before so that approach won't work on his henchmen." Meng Ka finished explaining for Shikamaru but Naruto was still confused.

"What do you really mean then?" Naruto asked looking between the two of them.

"Our pursuers must have been instructed in the terrain of this village, and have gone through simulated practice for this fight. And on top of that they must all be ninja's who have mastered the pursuit arts." Shikamaru answered.

"So they know what cards we have, huh." Sakura said, with a frustrated look as she finally understood what Meng Ka and Shikamaru were saying.

"Well, even so, the fact remains that an ambush is advantageous." Shikamaru added as he looked ahead of them.

"But there are too many elements of uncertainty." Meng Ka said, looking over at the three as Tinktink chirped in agreement. "In the first place, the group is a special unit, trained just for this mission. And well, our group…" Meng Ka trialed off trying to think of a way to say what was in her head.

"But we have a fool." Shikamaru picked up for her, knowing where she was going with things. "A Kunoichi who's nothing special, one dog and a kid with a phoenix. And me, with the number-one cold feet. A tactic is grasping the conditions that are there without fail and formulation a good plan."

Meng Ka nodded, "So there's only one thing we can do now," She said as she looked forward, "A diversion in the guise of an ambush. One person will remain, pretend to ambush, and delay the pursuers."

"In other words bait." Sakura said shocked as she looked at the two of them. Meng Ka only nodded her head as she remained looking forward, not liking their situation at all.

"Right. If we delay them, they won't be able to follow the others. If we do that, we'll be able to shake them off but the one who is bait most likely die." Shikamaru said as they all stopped in the trees.

Meng Ka landed next to Pakkun and watched the three of them as they all seemed to be lost in their own thoughts about the information that they just took in. When you're life was on the line and things weren't in your favor, it was a fairly hard decision to make. Meng Ka looked down at Pakkun, who shook his head and they looked back at the three of them. Being the higher level ninja in the group, Meng Ka was the one in charge of them but she was also the one who was responsible to bring them back home safely as well as complete the mission.

"So, who's going to do it?" Shikamaru asked bring everyone out of their thoughts as Meng Ka sighed and crossed her arms, looking over at Tinktink who landed on her shoulder. "We need the dog to follow Sasuke."

"I'll do it." Meng Ka said as she looked at the three of them, she was the most likely person to make it back safely plus she wouldn't be alone with Tinktink by her side.

"What?!" Sakura said as she looked sharply at her.

"No, you aren't!" Naruto said, "Kakashi would end up killing all of us, so what good would that do in the end."

"Naruto's right, you need to stay in the group to lead them, Meng Ka." Shikamaru said, "Even if you're a kid, you're also the only one here with the brains and skills to take on Gaara's group when we catch up to them." He shook his head and sighed, "I guess I'll have to do it then. It's better than being wiped out, right? Shadow jutsu is a delay tactic anyway. Well, you best get going."

Meng Ka nodded her head, understanding where he was coming from. "Good luck, Shikamaru. I'll see you later." She said as he nodded his head back to her and then took off. Pakkun watched him go and then turned and headed back on the trail with the others close beside him.

They had been running for nearly all day as the sun started to set and still they hadn't caught up with Sasuke. Meng Ka was getting frustrated herself as they kept going to try and catch up with him, Tinktink flying ahead every now and then to let them know if they were on the right track, helping Pakkun. They suddenly stopped as they heard an explosion in the distance. The four of them looked at each other but then kept going even faster, hoping that Sasuke was alright.

By mid-day the next day we stopped as Pakkun sniffed at the air, "Sasuke's on the move again, he's going after two people while one has stayed behind. There's a new scent as well, that person is going to fight the one that stayed behind. We'll need to go around them." He said to the three of them.

"What?! Let's just speed on through, it'll take too long if we go around!" Naruto argued as he held onto the tree that he was on.

"Our missoni to is bring Sasuke back so that's what we're doing by avoiding as much fighting as possible." Meng Ka said before jumping off her branch and following Pakkun, the other two following close behind her.

Finally though later in the day, they were able to catch up to Sasuke since he had stopped running and got caught up in a fight. As they came out of the trees, Naruto raced forward as he blocked an attack from Gaara that was meant for Sasuke. Meng Ka and Sakura landed next to them as Pakkun landed on Meng Ka's head.

Meng Ka looked him over and healed a few things here and there but he would be fine with rest. They had luckily made it just in time or else Gaara would have killed him for sure. He was already starting to let his one tail out as he was half way through turning into the monster. Looking back over at him she watched as he stood there glaring at them. Pakkun then suddenly disappeared as his job was done now and it was up to them to get Sasuke back. Gaara suddenly ran past Naruto to attack Sasuke but Sakura jumped out in front of him. Quickly Meng Ka ran out in front of her to try and block the attack but the blow was so strong that even with her wind block she was slammed into the wall with Sakura, darkness soon consuming her.

Meng Ka rubbed a tear away as she curled up closer to her pillow, pulling the covers tighter around her. Kakashi quietly walked in and looked at her from the door way. His eye softened as he saw her still in bed and he sighed as he lay down next to her and looked up at the ceiling. "You don't have to go if you don't want to."

"No!" Meng Ka said as she shot up and looked at Kakashi, "I have to go, that would just be disrespectful." She mumbled as she looked down at her hands. She had woken up in the hospital after Naruto and defeated Gaara but once she had woken up she had been told that the third hokage had passed away. Now today was his funeral and the sky was dark with clouds as Meng Ka finally got out of bed, Tinktink chirping softly from her window as she went to her closet to get her black dress out. Kakashi slipping out to go take care of something as Asume came and got her.

Meng Ka held onto Asume's hand as she kept whipping away stray tears as they walked to the funeral. She knew that ninja's weren't supposed to cry but she didn't care, she never wanted to be a ninja anyways. So as the funeral started, tears came down her cheeks silently at first but then she couldn't hold it back as she hugged Asume and cried into his waist as he hugged her close remaining silent. He walked her up to the stand and with a sniffle she placed a flower among the rest of them. The tears still falling no matter how much she tried to hold them back.

As the funeral ended the sun started to shine as Meng Ka's crying turned into hiccups as she finally caught up with Kakashi and he gave her a hug before they started to head off. Still hiccupping she suddenly felt a wet tongue lick at her cheek. Looking over she saw Kiba walking next to her with his mother and sister. He smiled softly down at her as she hiccupped again.

"Are you feeling better?" He asked concerned for her. He was one of the ones that visited her while she was in the hospital.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Meng Ka said softly, not really in the talking mood at the moment as another hiccup forced its way through her lips.

Akamaru whimpered and placed his paw on her shoulder and Meng Ka looked up from the ground and petted him on the head but remained quiet. From the corner of her eye she noticed Kakashi and Kiba's mom exchange looks but didn't think much about it as she hiccupped again.

"Mom said that the three of you are welcome to come over and eat dinner with us." Kiba said as he smiled at Meng Ka as Akamarau barked his agreement.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the two and Meng Ka looked up at him then back at Kiba, "Yeah, we'd like that." She said give Kiba a small smile as she hiccupped again.

"Great!" Kiba said as his smile widen, "You'll fit right in, no worries." Kiba said excitedly as he walked beside Meng Ka and the five of them walked back to his house as they all helped cook dinner and chatted, helping to get Meng Ka's mind off of the funeral as she slowly became back to her usual self as the night went on.


	7. Chapter 7

**I hope everyone enjoys this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Sorry about there being so little bit of Kiba but he really didn't fit in until the end.**

Meng Ka yawned as she stretched while still lying in her bed. Tinktink chirped again as she flapped her fiery wings sending hot air rushing passed Meng Ka's face. With a moan Meng Ka sat up, "I'm up, I'm up." She whined as she pulled the covers off and stood up. She sluggishly made her way over to her dresser were she picked out her clothes and then went to shower.

Tinktink handed Meng Ka the salt while she cooked Kakashi and herself breakfast as the sun was already making its way up the sky. Only a bit of pink was left in the sky when Meng Ka was done and strolling into Kakashi's room with a bucket of hot water, not hot enough to burn but hot enough to wake someone up. With a devilish smile on her small red lips, Meng Ka tilted the bucket and let the water fall on top of her Uncle. A loud scream radiated throughout the small cabin as a high pitched squeal was followed soon after it. Small feet could be heard running through the hall while someone yelled and followed after the laughter that echoed through the cabin.

"So what are you doing today, Uncle Shi?" Meng Ka asked as she put a piece of pancake in her mouth. Tinktink landed on the window sill, having returned from her morning hunt.

Kakashi looked over at Meng Ka and bit down on a piece of bacon, "Just some more training with Sasuke. But after that I'll be doing some patrol, we aren't going to be given any missions until the village is fixed and we have a new hokage." He said with a sigh as he drank some of her coffee.

"Yeah, once I'm done with handing out my jams and berries me and Kiba are going to help fix of some places." Meng Ka said as she got up and put her plate in the sink, she sat down next to Kakashi and drank some more of her milk.

"Hmm? You and Kiba seem to be spending a lot of time together." Kakashi said as he watched Meng Ka out of the corner of his eye. A small smile coming across his face as he noticed the light blush that came over Meng Ka's cheeks.

"S-so?" Meng Ka cleared her throat and crossed her arms, "We're just friends." She stuck her tongue out at Kakashi and then finished her milk.

Kakashi just chuckled as he finished his breakfast and then got ready for the day. As Kakashi walked out, Meng Ka was tying her leaf village band around her waist. He smiled and kissed her on the head before pull up his mask over his nose. "I'll see you for lunch."

"Psh, you and I both know you're gunna check up on me about five times before lunch." Meng Ka smiled up at Kakashi smugly but gave him a hug that he returned with another one of his chuckles.

As Kakashi walked out of the cabin, Meng Ka followed closely behind him but turned to walk into the forest as he made his way into the village. For the next few hours, Meng Ka picked berries and made jam. After jarring them, she stuck them into her baskets with her other berries. Smiling up at Tinktink she said, "This has to be our biggest order yet. Four whole baskets." Then she looked at the four baskets, "How am I going to carry all of this?" She asked mainly herself but like usual Tinktink seemed to have an answer.

Tinktink chirped sharply as she fluttered her wings, pushing a strong wind under the baskets, making them lift into the air for a few seconds. Meng Ka watched, still amazed herself at some things that Tinktink was capable of. Biting on her lip, Meng Ka concentrated on the wind around the baskets. She had never had to do something like this before and she was able to get two in the air but as the third one was coming up it swayed and then fell back on the table. Meng Ka took a deep breath and concentrated again, doing this over plenty of times but she soon got a hold of what she was doing and was able to carry one in her arms while having the other three follow after her as she made her way to the village.

She only had a few jars left when she ran into someone, or rather that someone ran into her. She fell back on her bottom, the jars thankfully still in one piece as they sat in her basket. Tinktink chirped softly as she landed on her shoulder and looking over at the kid with her yellow eyes.

"Oh!" Konohamaru said as he sat up rubbing the back of his head and noticed that it was Meng Ka he had ran into. In his hast to get to school, he hadn't noticed her small form until he turned the corner.

"Konohamaru! I'm sorry." Meng Ka said softly as she noticed it was the kid who liked to bully her because of how different she was. Getting up, she picked up her basket and looked around nervously as she waited for his two friends to pop out.

Konohamaru stood there as he stared at her with a strange expression on his face. He had never really looked at her before and as he took in her small frame that was dressed in a simple white dress. The way her cheeks turned a light pink as she blushed and her turquoise eyes looked around nervously. Shaking his head, he wondered why had was so mean to the girl in the first place, after all, she had been right there with him crying at his grandfather's funeral.

"Oh, it's you." Moegi said as she stuck her noise in the air and looked slightly down at Meng Ka while Udon sniffled and pushed his classes up.

"Shut up!" Konohamaru said sharply to her before looking back at Meng Ka. The three of them stared at him in shock as he seemed to be lost in thought before he finally straitened his back and looked over at Meng Ka, "Sorry for running into you. I'll see you around." With that he started to run off again, Moegi and Udon close behind him with shocked expressions still on his face.

Meng Ka watched the trio run away curiously but turned and walked over to the Ichiraku Ramen Shop. As she came in, she sat the basket down and smiled over at Naruto, "Hi, Naruto. How was training?" She asked as she pulled out the jams.

"It was great! I got a lot done but when I'm done with this I'm going to get back to training, I have a lot more to do still if I'm going to be the next hokage." He smiled at Meng Ka but then pointed at her jars of jam, curiously. "What are those for?"

Ayame giggled and handed Meng Ka her money, "It's the jam that she sells around the village. She has a nice stash of Goji berries growing in the forest near where she lives and my father and I love the jam." She smiled as she took the jars and put them away.

"You're not going to put that in the ramen are you?" Naruto asked as he watched Ayame put them away.

Teuchi laughed as he shook his head, "Of course not. It'll all be going straight in my stomach." He winked over at Meng Ka who giggled just as someone walked in the shop.

"Meng Ka! Is that you?" A deep voice said with surprise as she turned around to see who it was.

"Jiraiya-sensi!" Meng Ka said excitedly as she recognized the old sage and she jumped up from her seat, giving him a hug. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I'm helping Naruto to train. But look at you! You can speak clearly now. When I last saw you, you still couldn't say Kakashi's name correctly." He laughed at the old memories of the little five year old Meng Ka.

"Hey! Pervy Sage! Where have you been?!" Naruto yelled as he cut into their conversation, too got up in his anger at Jiraiya to notice the little reunion between the two.

"I told you not to call me that!" Jiraiya yelled and then sighed, "Finish eating and I'll let you know."

Naruto didn't seem to like that answer but he went back to eating while Meng Ka sat back down in her seat. "If you haven't seen Kakashi yet, he should be here soon since it's close to lunch time." Meng Ka said to Jiraiya.

"Ah, I've actually have seen him already, dear. But do tell him I said hello for me." He said as Naruto finished eating in record time. Jiraiya ruffled Meng Ka's hair and smiled, "It was good seeing you, kid. You'll have to show me some of that ninja fighting sometime when we get back." He gave her another hug and then left with Naruto who was firing question after question at him.

Just as Meng Ka turned around in her seat, Kakashi sat down next to her, two steaming bowls of ramen sitting in front of them. "So how's patrol going for you?" Meng Ka asked as she picked up some chop sticks.

"It's going alright, found some people to follow around but everything should be alright." Kakashi said as he looked over at her with a smile.

Meng Ka nodded her head and eats a bit of ramen, "Where Sasuke at? Done training as well?"

Kakashi tilted his head in thought, "We are finished for today but I believe he may be out training still."

Meng Ka sighed and turned in her seat to face Kakashi, "You know, Uncle Shi. Shadow clones still don't work on me." She said with a frown as she suddenly thrusted her chopsticks into his gut. His shadow clone gave a look of surprise before disappearing and Meng Ka only shook her head as she finished her ramen. "I'll get this one to go, Teuchi." She said pulling her lips into a smile.

She waved goodbye to the two in the shop before heading over to where Sasuke was. Everyone seemed to have that one spot that they liked to train and get away from everyone and Meng Ka pretty much knew everyone's spot. Walking through the woods, Tinktink became slightly restless as her movements became more sharp and higher up as if she were watching something. Meng Ka didn't bother the phoenix though as she made her way through the woods some more and stopped just as Sasuke released his rasengan that Kakashi had taught him.

He was breathing heavily and seemed rather lost in thought at he stared at the rock in front of him that had two holes in it now. Glancing over him, Meng Ka could see him already shaking from the lack of rest he was taking for his training and he was also at his limit by this point.

Meng Ka smiled and walked into his view, startling him slightly. "Hi Sasuke. Uncle Shi told me you were still training so I thought I'd come and give you some ramen." She said as she sat the box down on a rock and motioned for him to come over and sit.

Sasuke looked at her, his face completely expressionless, "Maybe later, I need to train. Thank you Meng Ka." He simply said, his voice seeming to be far away as he stared back at the rock and began to try and build more chakra.

Rolling her eyes Meng Ka walked up in front of him and too his hand in hers as she looked it over. An annoyed expression coming across Sasuke's face but he didn't fight her. "You need to rest. You're chakra points are already becoming narrow because you are over working them. They're kind of like muscles really." She began to pull him over to the rock and sat him down, "You have to build up to your goals. You can't do that by over training because then you are doing more harm than good." She kept saying as she took out the bowl of ramen and handed it to Sasuke.

"I know that, but-" Sasuke cut himself off as his lips tightened in a straight line and his one hand bowled into a fist.

Meng Ka tilted her head to the side and lightly touched his hand, sending some much needed chakra into his system to help sooth him. "Everyone gets stronger at their own pace. Both you and Naruto are fairly evenly matched when it comes to Chakra. You'll both end up exceeding even Uncle Shi."

Sasuke looked up at her sharply, "How do you know that?" He eyed her, having never trusted anyone in the first place, it was common for him not to trust what people say. But he did have to admit that he enjoyed Meng Ka's presence. For a child she was very mature and he was starting to see how she was such a high ranking ninja as her age. Before he hadn't noticed it but her small frame radiated power but it wasn't the kind like other powerful ninjas. Hers was more soothing and ancient, like it had been around for many years and over those years had built up knowledge from all around the world.

Meng Ka looked away from Sasuke, suddenly becoming rather shy, "My eyes are similar to Hinata's eyes." She said as her turquoise orbs slowly lifted to meet Sasuke's dark eyes. He shifted slightly, feeling a bit uneasy under her gaze. "Unlike the eyes of the Hyuga Clan, I can't see the chakra system but I can still see chakra. Though for me, the chakra is a different color than the usual shade of blue when it becomes visible to everyone. It's all kinds of colors, some are even blue. Though I've find that most of the time, the person actually wears the color of their chakra the most, even though they don't really realize it."

Meng Ka said as she bit her lip and thought about it, she had never really had to explain this to anyone. The third hokage actually understood everything and had even had some books about her kind for her to read. "Hmm, like Sakura, her chakra is pink and Naruto's is a light orange, though his shifts from light to dark sometimes. Yours is actually blue but a dark blue like your shirt." She pointed to his shirt, making Sasuke look down at it briefly before eating a bit of ramen.

Meng Ka fell silent as she became lost in her thoughts as the two of them sat there in a comfortable silence. Susake was finally starting to understand why the third hokage had such a great interest in her. "So are you like me then? The only one left of your clan?" He was curious mostly because he hadn't heard anything about another clan in the leaf village having been destroyed recently.

Looking up at Sasuke, Meng Ka's eyes became sadden as they seemed to glaze over as she thought back to the day Kakashi and the third hokage had explained to her about her heritage. "I am of the Hakuen Clan and also the sole survivor of the village hidden in the Phoenix Flame. The third hokage said that's why my chakra was white, even to the naked eye." She said as she lifted her small hand, palm up and concentrated chakra there for Sasuke to see. A small bit of chakra flowed through her palm, almost looking like a little white flame as it flickered about in her palm.

Sasuke looked at her palm, curiously. He had noticed it the times she had used it to heal others and now things were starting to click into place. He had always noticed the way others had treated her, the way the parents seemed to take pity on her and the kids seemed to keep their distance. But what made the most sense was back right behind Kakashi had agreed to help him learn the rasengan. Kakashi had made her swear to protect Meng Ka with it, no matter what was in store for them in the future. Not really understanding at that time, Sasuke had agreed to get him to teach him but now he understood why. In the wrong hands, Meng Ka's chakra was dangerous but not only that, she was also powerful, even without knowing what really, Sasuke knew that even her body must work differently than usual. Meng Ka was practically a gold mine for Orochimaru.

Meng Ka suddenly stood up, "I must be going; I told Kiba I'd help him with cleaning up the village today. I haven't even seen him yet and it's past noon already!" She suddenly rushed over to her baskets, picking them up as Sasuke got up.

"I'll walk with you then." He said as he suddenly found himself being a bit protective of the girl, with a start suddenly realizing just why Kakashi was so protective of her as well. "It's the least I can do for bringing me the ramen." He said as he looked at her with his blank face but a small smile tugged at his lips.

Meng Ka smiled up at him and nodded her head, "Thanks, Sasuke." The two walked through the village as Meng Ka kept an eye out for Kiba, hoping to at least explain to him why she hadn't showed up yet. Time had completely slipped on her and she felt awful for not getting to Kiba sooner. They came up to her place and Sasuke opened the door, letting Meng Ka in.

"I'm going to talk to Kakashi real fast. Where is his room?" He asked as Meng Ka set the baskets down on the table.

"Oh, I'll show you. Though I thought he was on patrol so I doubt he's in there." Meng Ka said with a shrug and showed him to Kakashi's room. Upon walking in, Meng Ka saw Guy, Asume and Kurenai all sitting his Kakashi's room. Her eyes scanned over the three frames over his bed, briefly pausing on each one. The first one being of when he was young and in his group, with his sensi and then the other was of Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke with Kakashi. Her eyes paused a little bit longer on the picture of the both of them with Tinktink. She was only three in that picture and Kakashi was holding her as she giggled at something, Tinktink resting on the other side of Kakashi's shoulder. Kakashi was looking down at Meng Ka with a gentle smile.

But as her eyes drifted away from the pictures and onto the bed, her blood ran cold as she screamed, "Uncle Shi!" She ran over to him quickly, instantly starting to scan his body for injuries but forward her brow in confusion as she found nothing.

"Why is Kakashi sleeping?" She heard Sasuke's neutral ton fill the air, "Besides, only Jonin are gathering here. What are you doing? What in the world happened?" He demanded at the end as he looked at both Kakashi and Meng Ka. Meng Ka on the other hand just ignored everyone as she continued to scan over Kakashi's body, something was there, she could feel her. She brought her hands up to his face, wondering if maybe he had over used his eye. That was when it hit her like a bolt of lightning. It was strange, something she had never ran into before but she had read about all the time. The mental beating of a Sharingan, it only attacked the brain but affected the whole body.

"Nothing in particular." Came Guy's deep response and Meng Ka looked up at him, confusion plain on her face.

Just then another Jonin ran inside the room, "Is it true that Itachi has returned? And moreover, is after Naruto?!" That's when it suddenly hit her, the two people Kakashi said he was following earlier that day. One of them must have been Itachi, that would explain why he didn't come to see her himself but rather sent a clone.

"Idiot." Kurenai said as she shook her head and Guy sighed, smacking his forehead while Asume took a deep drag of his cigarette. Sasuke remained quiet as he took in the information; his eyes suddenly changing from their calm state to that of anger as he suddenly ran out of the room.

"Why does this always happen?!" Guy yelled as he stood up and looked at the man in front of him, "Go after him!" he yelled at the ninja and with a nod of his head he ran out after Sasuke.

Meng Ka bit down on her lip as Guy slumped back down in his seat. "What happened?" Meng Ka, her voice small but steady and full of demand as she remained still and looked at Kakashi.

She could feel the air become tense as her own anger grew. Meng Ka may hate to fight and kill but attacking those she held close was one sure way to get under her skin real fast. "Itachi used his sharingan against Kakashi. One moment he was alright but then the next he was falling down. I can't really explain it." Asume said gently, he knew this side of Meng Ka, though rare, he had only seen it once before.

The air seemed to thicken around them and grow hater as her blood began to boil and she bit down on her lip. "They're after Naruto you say?" She asked her voice still small and demanding as her eyes never left Kakashi's.

The three Jonin looked at one another, knowing that Meng Ka was in a dangerous stage right now and none of them wanted to trigger her anger but they didn't want her to go running off like Sasuke did. Guy rested his head on his hands and watched her closely, Meng Ka filling his gaze finally turned around and looked at him, her eyes having a small golden ring around them as her anger grew. As the two stared at each other, Guy finally gave in, "Yes." He said somewhat defeated.

Just as he said that, Meng Ka was gone; having moved so fast that it took a bit for the three in the room to notice she had left. Tinktink was hot on her trail though as she raced through the village, locking onto Naruto's chakra and following it. Chakra was radiating through her veins as she raced to the village that they were at. Seeing the hole in the hotel she quickly jumping in and she then landed right in between the two brothers, kicking Itachi against the corner of the wall, making a whole as he coughed up blood. Sasuke sunk back down to the ground and Meng Ka stood protectively in front of him.

Her eyes were almost a pure golden color by this point as Tinktink came to rest on her shoulder, her flames looking brighter as the air around them was thick and hot. She had just broken Itachi's nightmare realm, the same thing he head used on Kakashi and that only seemed to make her blood boil more as she watched him stand.

Jiraiya suddenly became tense as he noticed Meng Ka's eyes and Naruto looked at her in pure horror. "Meng Ka! What are you doing?! Get out of there! He's going to kill you!" Naruto yelled as he balled his fist and glared at the guy in front of him.

"Hmm, so you're Meng Ka. The leaf village keeps you pretty well hidden." Itachi said as he stood up and looked down at the girl. She only narrowed her eyes at him, looking only at his eyebrows and not into his eyes. "You're a smart girl with a powerful kick for one so small. We'll have our use for you later on but for now we only need Naruto." He looked over at Naruto then back at Meng Ka, "Stay out of the way for now. We need you alive."

"Should have thought about that before you decided to attack Kakashi." She said in a low voice that was laced with so much venom that it demanded Itachi's attention as the two locked eyes.

At that moment, Naruto suddenly ran forward, the blue guy suddenly running after him as Jiraiya made quick hand movements and the walls around them suddenly turned into muscle but Meng Ka didn't keep her eyes off of Itachi as the wall sucked up Sasuke and began to try and drag her down as well, Jiraiya wanting her safe and out of the way.

"This? This is…" Naruto trailed off as he looked around.

"Ninja art: Toad Mouth Trap! How unfortunate Itachi, Kisame. You guys are already inside my stomach." Jiraiya answered as Itachi broke eye contact with Meng Ka and looked over at him. "I summoned the esophagus of the giant toad of the Mt. Myomoku rock cave. You guys are wanted criminals anyways. I'll turn you guys into fodder for the stone toad.

"What?!" Kisame said as he glared Jiraiya.

"Naruto, Meng Ka! Stay still." Jiraiya ordered.

Itachi looked back at them, "Come here, Kisame." He ordered and the blue guy broke free of the stomach lining and ran down to Itachi.

"There hasn't been one person who has escaped from this!" Jiraiya yelled after them as the two of them ran forward.

Suddenly there was a banging sound as the two escaped and Meng Ka followed Jiraiya to the massive hole in the stomach. Black flames were coming from the hole and Jiraiya sealed them as he made sure they both stood back from it. Taking a deep breath, Meng Ka sighed as she gained control over her anger. That solid kick that she got in had been rather satisfying for the moment and she turned around to help get Sasuke out of the wall. Naruto helped her to set him on the ground as Jiraiya got rid of the frog stomach. Meng Ka quickly began to heal what she could of Sasuke, though he was going to have to rest to help with his mental state that the nightmare realm put him in.

Suddenly, Guy ran in and kicked Jiraiya in the face, making him fall down the hallway. As Guy landed he suddenly got a panicked look on his face as he realized just who he had kicked in the face. "Well, I'm sorry for having kicked you so directly. I was in a rush and I forgot my mirror. I used this headband instead and it was hard to see who was who. So I assumed this rough-hewn face was the enemy. I just let the flames of the burning juvenescence take over me. I'm sorry!"

"Is that supposed to be an apology?!" Jiraiya asked, furious.

"I'm a simple-minded guy, just like my face looks." Guy said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"It doesn't really matter." Meng Ka said interrupting the two, "More importantly, we have to get Sasuke to the medical team. He's broken his arm and ribs; I can only do some much here. But not only that, he's lost consciousness from the nightmare realm that Itachi put him through."

"Hey, Meng Ka! Is Sasuke going to be alright?" Naruto asked worriedly beside her as she finished healing him.

"Seems he's suffered a great deal of mental damage." Meng Ka said truthfully but she smiled, "He should be fine though." She knew he would be and she zoned out the two as they argued and she went to checking his mental state again, seeing if maybe there was something she could do. But there wasn't much that she knew about this and she didn't want to mess around with his head.

Meng Ka yawned as they finally made it back to the village. She was tired with the day's events and her anger from earlier had drained a bit of chakra from her. Guy had gone ahead with her urging and she waved sleepily at the two at the gate before making her way through the village.

"Meng Ka!" A familiar voice yelled at her and suddenly someone had her in a head lock as they ruffled her hair. "Where have you been?! The day is already over and I haven't seen you all day!" Kiba yelled with a smirk on his face.

Meng Ka mumbled something as he let her go and she yawned, rubbing her eyes. "Sorry…" She trailed off and Kiba tilted his head to the side, "Are you alright?" He asked concerned.

"Yeah, I just need some rest." She said with another yawn.

Kiba smiled and then laughed as her stomach growled, "And some food from the sound of it. Come on, mom is making dinner. You're always welcomed to eat with us." He said as he lifted her up on his back, Meng Ka too tired to argue with him as he ran back to his house, Akamaru close behind him.

By time he had gotten back to the house, he was about to set her down when he realized she had fallen asleep on his back. He chuckled and carried her in, taking her to his room and laying her down before slipping out and going to dinner.


	8. Chapter 8

Lady Tsunade walked into the hospital room at Naruto's urging and scanned the room, a bit shocked at all of the medical books that were opened and laying around. As she looked at the bed, she saw a little girl with auburn curls lying on top of Kakashi with a rather large medical book on top of her chest. Having must of fallen asleep while reading through all of these books. She smiled softly at the little girl before she started to heal Kakashi. Her brow forwarded slightly as she noticed that the process was halfway done already, looking down at the girl, curious now as to who she was.

"Disgraceful. Too think, you were taken out of the game by two little punks like that. I thought you were supposed to be the best, Kakaish." Tsunade said as she frowned down at him. Kakashi having sat up and gently moved Meng Ka to the side so as not to wake her.

"Well, sorry to disappoint." He said softly as he looked down at Meng Ka, noticing the dark circles under her eyes.

"Ok, just one more and you're all done!" Yelled Naruto as Guy practically dragged them out of the room, leaving the two alone.

Kakashi sighed and placed a curl behind Meng Ka's ear before getting up to stretch. The movement having woken up Meng Ka as she noticed Kakashi's warmth was gone and she sat up instantly, panicked about why he was gone. Then seeing him awake and standing beside the bed a huge smile spread across her lips as she leaped at him and hugged him, tears streaming down her face.

Kakashi stumbled back a bit, still needing some more rest before he was back to his old self. Smiling softly he hugged Meng Ka back as the two of them stood there not saying anything. Meng Ka had been so worried about Kakashi when he hadn't woken up. All of the books in the library weren't any help either as she had read through all of them twice, unable to find anything that would help her. She didn't want to experiment on Kakashi either, messing with the mind was a very complex and delicate thing. Mess one thing up and Kakashi could have never woken up.

"Ah, so you're Meng Ka. You came pretty close to healing Kakashi on your own, you know." Lady Tsunade said as she sat at her desk later that day. "Jiraiya spoke a lot about you last time we crossed paths. According to him you are very special."

Meng Ka blushed as the words and shook her head, feeling a bit strange being in the hokage's building. She hadn't stepped foot in it since the third hokage's death and now here she was with a different hokage sitting behind the desk. "I doubt I'd be anything special if my kind were still alive. For all I know I could actually be considered stupid according to my kind's standards."

Lady Tsunade rested her chin on her intertwined fingers on the desk as she studied the girl. She was mature for her age and seemed to very smart; Jiraiya wasn't lying when he spoke about this girl nor were the rumors far from their mark. She could see why the third hokage had taken such interest in the girl but she was rather shocked at the lack of information kept on her. There was only a small book that spoke of her kind and even then it didn't seem like the author knew too much about her kind either. The third hokage had known them personally, having befriended them on a mission once but this was the first time she had meet one before and now Meng Ka was the only one left.

Shizune cocks her head to the side as she watches the two, both of them lost in their own thoughts. Meng Ka was nothing more than an eight year old girl, almost nine. She found it amazing that she was already so high up in the ranks yet she could see why. Nothing seemed to pass Meng Ka, she was a sharp child who learned quickly and her chakra was different than anyone else's. Tonton sniffed the air towards Meng Ka and her phoenix, and she jumped down from her arms, walking up to her.

Meng Ka looked down at the pig curiously, he was rather cute in his clothes and she squatted down to pet him on the head lightly. Tonton sniffed at her again and then said something as she ran back to Shizune, who picked her back up.

"Perhaps you can be one of Lady Tsunade's students. You seem to have a very keen eye for details and the head nurse talks only of praises about you." Shizune spoke up as she looked between the two.

Meng Ka hesitated but looked over at Shizune, "I would be honored." She looked back at Lady Tsunade, "But I would not be able to give it my full attention as something tells me I'll be going on more missions than the third hokage dared to assign me."

Lady Tsunade watched the girl closely and met her eyes, the two watching one another for a long while before Tsunade stood up, "Then I'll expect you to do twice as much self-study." She said with a smile as she put her hands on her hips and towered over Meng Ka.

Meng Ka smiled back and nodded her head, "Can't say that I will but I'll try to do my best." She then turned around and started to walk out.

"I didn't say we were finished." Lady Tsunade's voice said as she looked at the girl a bit shocked.

"I know but I did." She called over her shoulder as she walked out and down the hallway, the sound of Lady Tsunade's amused voice drifted through the hall but she couldn't tell what she was saying.

Meng Ka wasn't trying to be rude she just didn't like being in that room anymore. There were too many memories and she was still grieving for the old guy. Walking out of the building, Tinktink chirped happily as she landed on her shoulder. Meng Ka petted the phoenix on the head for a bit as she walked down the street. After a few minutes she suddenly ran into Lee on one of the many bridges in the leaf village.

"Hi Lee!" She said cheerily as she stood next to him, smiling. She knew all about his medical status and that even Lady Tsunade wasn't sure if she could help but she didn't want to show Lee any kind of pity. If she were in his shoes she'd still want to be treated the same way.

"Oh, hi. Meng Ka right?" He asked as he looked down at the little girl as Meng Ka climbed up on the railing and sat down.

"Yep. Out enjoying the weather today? Shouldn't you be training?" She asked as she looked back at him and swayed her feet back and forth.

"I-I can't train, Meng Ka." He said in a small voice as his body tensed and he looked down at his own reflection in the water.

Meng Ka smiled gently and looked down at his reflection, "Sure you can. It's just not as intense or ninja like fighting like you're used to. It's more of a training to help build your muscles back up so that you can get back to where you were and even past it."

Lee sighed and shook his head, "No, Lady Tsunade even doesn't think I have a chance."

"Lee, I'm very disappointed in you." Meng Ka said bluntly as she noticed the happy act wasn't working on him.

Lee looked up at her sharply, "What?"

"I'm disappointed. Guy hasn't given up on your state and neither has Lady Tsunade. I bet right now as we speak they're trying to figure out a way to help you. And here you are feeling sorry for yourself." Meng Ka meets his eyes and narrowed hers a little, "If others haven't given up on you then why should you give up on yourself?"

Lee looked at her a bit shocked at what she was telling him, it was almost like he was being scolded by his mother. But then it hit him, he shouldn't give up, he would have to do even more training so that he can be strong again.

"Alright!" he said as he stood up on one leg with his crutch. "I'm going to train five thousand times more than what I used to!" he yelled and with a determined face started to head for the hospital.

Meng Ka looked at him with a bit of a worried expression, "Please tell me he's not serious." She looked at Tinktink who only chirped softly, not knowing herself.

"Meng Ka!" A familiar voice called out as she got down from the railing and she smiled, "Kiba!" Waving she laughed as Akamaru jumped in her arms and she gave the pup a big hug. "How are you today Akamaru?"

"Come on, Meng Ka. You still owe me from a few days ago with helping to rebuild the village. There's still a lot of work to be done." Kiba said with a big smile on his face making Meng Ka chuckle.

"Yeah, yeah. Fine. I guess I can help." She said playfully as she walked next to Kiba and the four of them headed over to the part of the village that still needed repairs.

Meng Ka jumped with a start as she sat up in her chair that she had made out of books, having agreed to help Lady Tsunade study on some medical things. Isumo and Kotetsu walked with each holding a huge stack of books.

Lady Tsunade was woken up as well as she smiled from her desk, "Good work…" She trailed off as she whipped the drool from her chin.

"Ah! Fifth hokage, you were asleep just now, weren't you?" Asked Kotetsu, getting angry, "When you made us go fetch the documents! And only you and Meng Ka got to sleep!"

Lady Tsunade laughed nervously but Isumo spoke up before she could say anything, "More importantly, Lady hokage, there's something I want to report to you." They both set the books down as Isumo straightened up, "Sasuke has joined the sound village."

"What did you say?!" Meng Ka as she suddenly sat up in her seat, Tsunade doing the same as well.

"Is this true?!" Tsunade asked as she looked over at Kotetsu.

"Yes." He said, confirming what Isumo had said.

"According to Sakura Haruno, it appears there is no mistake." Isumo added as the room became quiet.

"Izumo! Kotetsu! There's someone I want you to bring here." Lady Tsunade said as she slowly sat back down in her seat, gaining control over her wondering thoughts.

"Yes!" The two said as they raced out of the room and Meng Ka sighed, walking over to the nearest window as she looked out at the rising sun. She knew that Sasuke was struggling to get stronger since he was rather impatient but she never thought he would go to such lengths to gain more power.

"As dangerous as it is to have you going near Orochimaru and his gang. I need you to be there for the group. You're the only Jonin left in the village that is up for the job." Lady Tsunade's voice drifted over to Meng Ka.

Sighing she looked back over to her, "I understand. I'll only interfere in the fighting only if necessary."

"Bring Sasuke back. That is your mission. But don't interfere unless you know for sure that you won't be captured by them as well." Tsunade said sternly and Meng Ka nodded her head. She understood the mission, Sasuke's life was a great value to them but her own was even greater than his. It wasn't the ninja way but in a time like this, it was their only way to make sure that they get Sasuke back.

"I'll be the medic and nothing more." She said simply before there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Lady Tsunade yelled as she watched the door open and Shikamaru walked in.

"You wanted to see me, fifth hokage?" He asked as he stood there and nodded towards Meng Ka who smiled softly back at him.

"Sasuke Uchiha apparently slipped out of the village late last night." Lady Tsunade said gravely, "And there is no mistake, that he is headed for the village hidden in the sound."

"Slipped out! Why?" Shikamaru asked, almost in a state of shock as he couldn't believe that Sasuke would do something like that.

"Because he was enticed by that Orochimaru." Meng Ka said as she came to stand by Lady Tsunade's desk, the smile gone from her face.

"W-W-Wait a moment!" Shikamaru stammered for the first time in front of Meng Ka. "What does Sasuke have to be enticed by a risky guy like that?"

"The reason doesn't matter." Lady Tsunade said sternly, "In any case, we don't have time. You will perform your first mission as a Chunin."

"So all I have to do is bring Sasuke back?" Shikamaru asked, gaining his composure once more.

"Yes, however, not only is time of the essence on this mission, but it might turn into something quite difficult." Lady Tsunade said as she folded her hands and looked at Shikamaru with a deep frown on her face. "There is a strong possibility that those under Orochimaru are guiding Sasuke."

The room fell silent as Shikamaru took in the information and seemed to think about it. It didn't take him long though to reply, "In that cause, please give me a team composed of only Jonin and Chunin." He said.

Lady Tsunade looked down, "I'm afraid I can't do that…" She said in a small voice, the stress of the situation evident in her voice. "Meng Ka is the only one I can spare at the moment. In the next 30 minutes," Her voice became stronger as she turned to the side to look out the window, "gather all of the Genin you consider the best and leave the village!" She ordered.

"It's a drag but I'll do it." He said as he turned around to leave, Meng Ka following after him.

"There is someone I want to recommend." Lady Tsunade said suddenly before they could leave.

Meng Ka banged on the door in front of her, "Kiba! Wake up!" She yelled as she banged on the door again.

Suddenly the door flew opened and Kiba stood there in his pjs holding onto a sleepy Akamaru, "What?" He asked a bit dazed.

"No time to explain, get dressed and I'll tell you when we're on our way!" Meng Ka said as she dragged him back to his room and started to throw clothes at him. Once he was dressed, the two of them were more awake and Akamaru barked excitedly as they ran down the street to meet up with Shikamaru.

"So he's a traitor then!" Kiba said angrily as Meng Ka finished telling him everything.

"No, just confused. We have to bring him back, Kiba. He's one of us so he's family." Meng Ka said annoyed but understood his reaction.

Up ahead they saw Naruto, Shikamaru and Choji. Akamaru ran ahead up them as he saw the potato chip in Choji's hand, hungry he leapt for the food but Choji ate it before Akamaru could get it. Meng Ka chuckled as she picked up Akamaru and dug around in her pocket, pulling out a food treat just for him. Akamaru ate it happily while Naruto fired off questions.

"Shino is on a special mission with his father." Kiba said since Meng Ka was supposed to get Shino and coming back with Kiba instead was a bit confusing for Shikamaru.

Hey, don't tell me…" Naruto said as he pointed to the two of them.

"Right. They're in as well." Shikamaru said unfazed by Naruto's over reactions to everything.

"No way! Why Meng Ka?!" Naruto asked loudly as he became worried, "Kakashi-sensi is going to kill us if anything happens to her!"

Meng Ka rolled her eyes, "You forget Naruto that I'm of higher rank than yourself. Besides, you'll need all the medical help you can on this trip."

That seemed to calm Naruto down a bit as they began to race for the village gate. On their way there they ran into Neji and Lee. Thankfully Neji was able to join them and as they made it to the gate, they stopped to breath a little.

"We made it just at our time limit." Shikamaru said as he looked down the pathway. "And all I have are five people. Well, as a start since this is a rescue mission, we will be in the position of pursuit. In other words, the enemy can easily gain the initiative. Therefore, I will decide on a deployment formation that will respond quickly to any assault by the enemy. If you ignore me and move of your own accord, we will all die."

That seemed to get everyone's attention and Meng Ka smiled to herself. Already Shikamaru was starting on well, since these are his friends, they were most likely going to ignore him in the first place. He needed a way of taking authority and having them listen to him without complaint or else they would all die.

"We will go in a single file formation." Shikamaru continued, "First of all, the all-important spearhead will be Kiba, that's you. You and Akamaru go on walks year round and therefore well versed in the terrain and geography of the land of fire. And since your nose is very sensitive, you can follow Sasuke's sent."

He then turned to Meng Ka, "You will be right behind him Meng Ka. With your ability to lock onto chakra, you'll be able to let us know where Sasuke is as well and be able to tell us if the enemy is trying anything funny. With the two of you up front it'll be hard for the enemy to surprise us."

"Next will be me, the squad leader. I can give orders from my position directly behind Kiba and Meng Ka and give orders to those behind me using hand signals. And in the middle will be Naruto. The middle is best for you since you're capable of executing quick moves and able to respond to anything up front or behind." Shikamaru not breaking to let what he is saying sink in to everyone, "And fourth in line will be Choji, you don't have speed but your ability to strike is the best among the squad members. Line leaders Kibs, Meng Ka, I and Naruto will launch a surprise attack and I'll use you to launch on the deciding blow."

He then looked over at Neji, "On the tail end will be Neji, you are assigned to the most difficult position of rear lookout. You will use your Byakugan to constantly check that there are no loopholes in the ranks. Any questions?" He asked now that he was finally done.

"You're acting kind of like a Chunin, aren't you?" Kiba teased as he smiled over at Shikamaru.

"Alright, everyone take out your ninja tools. I will commit them to memory for later use." Neji said as everyone began to pull out their sacks of weapons.

Meng Ka looked over everyone's weapons and then rubbed the back of her head; she wasn't much for one to carry that many weapons. Neji looked over at Meng Ka, "Don't you have weapons Meng Ka?" He asked in a disapproving tone.

"Yeah, kind of." She said as she pulled out her two sai that were always at her hips and then flipped her long braid over her shoulder to show the small dagger at the bottom.

"That's it?" Neji asked as he looked at the three small blades.

"That's all she needs." Shikamaru piped in. He wasn't too sure of Meng Ka's skills either but the Hokage had her go with him as well. He figured if anything he would be able to see what she was capable of on this mission.

"Alright, let's go!" He ordered as the seven of them headed out to find Sasuke, Meng Ka locking onto Sasuke's chakra while Kiba and Akamaru sniffed him out.


	9. Chapter 9

**Wow, I've got over 100 readers! Thanks ya'll so much for reading this far! I really hope you enjoy it. I was hoping to finish it at the point where they lose Sasuke but since it has been a while I wanted to give ya'll something to read! Thanks again!**

Kiba came to a sudden stop on one of the branches as he sniffed the air and the team stopped beside. Meng Ka was higher up in the trees as Tinktink had taken to the sky to help them track down the group that had Sasuke. Looking down, she tilted her head to the side. "What is it Kiba?" She called down but already knew the answer.

"They've stopped. Most likely to rest, if we hurry we will be able to gain on them while they are resting." Kiba said looking up at her and then back at the others.

"Meng Ka." Shikamaru called up to her, "What is the group's level of chakra?" He asked, knowing that if she could sense chakra then she could also tell how strong they were as well.

Wincing, she was hoping he wouldn't have thought of that since she already could tell that they were far beyond the level of their group's chakra. Frowning she jumped down closer to them, "Let's just say that as of right now our best bet is catching them blind and not getting into any fights with them. Basically we'll have to steal Sasuke right from under their noses and that's going to be a challenging enough task for us."

Shikamaru nodded his head as worry passed through the faces of the others but they soon recovered with determination as Naruto yelled out, "Well what are we waiting for?! Let's get Sasuke!" Meng Ka winced at his loud voice as Tinktink returned and landed on her shoulder.

Kiba suddenly smacked Naruto behind his head, "Shut up! You're so loud. What part of surprise attack do you not understand?!" He yelled right back only adding to the noise as the two of them argued with each other.

Shikamaru sighed and rolled his eyes, "Hey! Both of you shut up and get back in formation." They all nodded and quickly began to run again, "The odds are high that there will be traps or ambushes. I want you to use your visual and acoustic senses to the fullest! We need to locate these guys before we get ambushed. And if we come across anything suspicious, don't just dodge them, interpret them."

"All right! When we catch up to them I'm going to use my new justu to clobber them." Naruto said with a smile on his face as they continued to race through the trees.

Meng Ka looked back at him with a chuckle but also noticed Kiba's annoyed look on his face, those two either got along perfectly or not all it seemed. Suddenly Akamaru stiffed the air and barked, making Kiba look up shocked. "Everyone, the enemy's scent is all around us!" He yelled making every stop and land on the same tree branch.

"Paper bombs," Neji said as they looked up, "The figuration is that of a perimeter barrier."

"What's that?" Asked Choji as he looked over at Neji.

"It's one type of booby trap ninjusu." Shikamaru answered while still looking up, "Those types have a time lag and are activated when someone enters the area that has been marked by the enemy."

"It's advance jutsu," Meng Ka said softly looking over the group, "It was one of the first lessons Uncle Shi had me do when I became a Chuunin." She bit down on her lip as she looked back over the trees, spotting the paper bombs, they were everywhere.

"Darn! Our only choice is to make a detour," Kiba said as he looked down at her and then over at Shikamaru.

"Meng Ka, you still have a lock on their chakra right?" Shikamaru asked as he looked over at her. She nodded her response, "Good, you'll lead then since you're the only one here who knows how these traps works. Kiba, you'll still use your nose to detect other traps as well."

Meng Ka nodded and jumped down from the trees, landing on the ground and leading them around the trap but it was long before they ran into even more traps. "Damn! Nothing but traps!" Kiba whined as he stepped over another string that Meng Ka had spotted.

"Yeah but the enemy seems pressed for time." Meng Ka said, "The traps have noticeable flaws and they've only been taking about five minutes worth of rest before heading off again. Most likely setting more traps."

"Hey hey! Naruto! There's a wire under your feet." Kiba called out as he looked behind him.

"Yeah, yeah. I already know that." He said bored as he stepped over the wire.

"Wait! Naruto!" Shikamaru called out as another wire much thinner than the rest caught his eye. Naruto froze where he was and a panic look overcame his face. Meng Ka sighed crossing her arms as she looked back, knowing what this meant. Naruto was about to freak out but luckly, Shikamaru used his shadow jutsu to stop him and move him out of place but not before he yelled at him of course.

Once he was away from the wires the group squatted down to have a look at the new wire. "I see, one of the wires is readily visible because it reflects light." Shikamaru said he looked closely to it, "The other has been coated green."

"So it is very difficult to see with the naked eye," Neji added, "It's a double trap." A look of amazement passed through his eyes before his face became neutral once again.

"Despite the fact that they're in a hurry, that's an elaborate trap. Which means…" he trailed off as he looked up at Meng Ka knowingly.

"That they're at rest." Meng Ka finished for him, having already told them that just a few minutes ago but this time they weren't setting traps.

"Perhaps they got injured or that itself is a trap." Neji added as he looked down at the wire, and then looked up, folding his hands together, "Byakugan!" He said as he looked ahead of them. "Caught 'em."

"All right. All right. I'll drag Sasuke back without fail!" Naruto said as he stood up.

Kiba smirked and looked back at him, "Naruto, hate to tell you this, but I'm going to demonstrate my new jutsu right here!" Akamaru barking his agreement.

"Me too!" Choji said as he stood up as well.

Meng Ka frowned a bit, "Don't be so hasty or cocky. You'll end up getting us all killed." She put her hands on her hips and glared over at the three of them.

"As soon as preparations have been made to implement my strategy," Shikamaru said as he stood up, "We'll make direct contact with the target."

Shikamaru finished explaining his plans to them and they soon split up into three groups. Neji with Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba and Naruto and then Meng Ka with Tinktink. Shikamaru and Neji went to one side while the others went to the other side. Meng Ka then took to the trees and watched from above as everyone moved in on the group. Tinktink chirped softly by her side, uneasy as her keen yellow eyes watched the group as they sat in a circle. With how high their chakra levels were she was surprised that it was so easy for them to sneak up on them. Even though they were trying to be quiet, they were still making a lot of noise in the bushes.

Suddenly Meng Ka froze as she looked ahead of her, there she could see a silver wire, much like the ones she had seen before but this one was thinner. "Almost like a spider's web…" She said to Tinktink as she studied it but then realization hit her hard as she looked down. The web was everywhere and they were caught right in the middle of it. Before she could call out and warn the others the blue haired guy stood up and threw daggers at Shikamaru and Neji.

Cursing she jumped down, throwing the two forward and then forming signs with her hands, "Kyūshū suru!" She called out as she made her final sign just as the blast went off and Neji and Shikamaru watched in horror as the blast swallowed her only to disappear as Meng Ka remained still, her eyes closed as the bright light of the blast surrounded her in a thin layer and then flowed into her hands, disappearing.

But before they could say anything the blue haired guy spoke as the four of them stood before them, "What's this? I poke the bush for kicks and out comes not even a snake, just three bugs."

The biggest of the four moved as if to attack but Shikamaru quickly stood up, "Wait a minute. Wait! We didn't come here to fight. We just came here to negotiate!"

The one with four arms smirked and chuckled, "Then what are they?" He said as he lifted his fists and pulled forward. The wire Meng Ka saw earlier appeared and then the rest of their group came flying through the air. Kiba was quick to act though a he throw one of his smoke bomb down, giving them some time for a distraction as the four armed guy underestimated them and stood there talking about how great his string is.

Even Meng Ka had to fight back a roll of her eyes as she continued to try her best to look fragile and scared. She looked over at Shikamaru then as the smoke cleared, "Didn't think they had such ability with them in the group."

Shikamaru chuckled, "It was a trap for sure." He said back as he kept his eyes on the group in front of them.

The four armed guy smirked, "You will be..!" He suddenly stopped as he looked down, "I can't move!" he said in confusion as his group struggled to move as well.

"Nice! Kiba, Shikamaru!" Naruto said with a smile as Choji chuckled in agreement but this one no time to be celebrating and calling out their bluff. "Shadow possession jutsu succeeded!" Meng Ka could have smacked him by now.

"But there is one with ability like this too." Shikamaru said as he smirked and looked over at the group. "Thanks for getting caught in the trap so easily." Now Meng Ka could have smacked them both, unless Shikamaru was acting cocky on purpose. She never really did know with him, he was rather good at bluffing and pretending.

The blue haired guy smirked back, "Darn. But," Meng Ka hated 'buts', "I have this kind of ability too." He said as he shifted slightly and suddenly daggers were flying at Shikamaru from behind.

He moved quickly out of the way but still got cut in the process and released his justu on the four of them. The biggest one didn't hesitated as he called out, "Earth style barrier." He then kneeled and placed his hands on the ground, "Earth dome prison!" He yelled as the ground shook and cracked around them and a dome of earth surrounded them.

"Darn!" Shikamaru said as he looked up at the earth around them. Meng Ka sighed and sat down, her feet were killing her and she figured she let the group panic for a bit. That would teach them to get so cocky and let their guard down.

"I don't know what it's made out of," Kiba said with a chuckled, "We'll just have to tear this wall down." He said confidently and Meng Ka had to admit that they weren't as cocky as they were beforehand.

"Even so, it's more dangerous to be careless. Actually it's more dangerous to be silent here." Shikamaru said as he looked over at Meng Ka, "Have you run into this before?"

Meng Ka shook her head, "No, I haven't but like you said we need to be careful."

Before she was even finished saying that Kiba was already going into action as he tried to tunnel his way through but soon they discovered that the wall was restoring itself faster than Kiba could dig. Meng Ka couldn't help but wonder what Uncle Shi would do in a time like this, most likely just use his red eye and then poof he's out. Sighing, Meng Ka stood up and ran a hand over the rock. It felt like normal rock yet it was almost like Jiraiya sensi's frog stomach jutsu.

"Neji…" Meng Ka said softly as she looked over at him but he was already folding his hands, "Byakugan!" He called out and looked around the room. "Th-this is.." He trailed off as he stared at the wall.

"What is it?" Shikamaru asked as everyone crowded around Neji.

"This is bad, chakra is being sucked up," He said as he looked down at his hands, shaking slightly.

"I didn't expect that they would just keep us in the barrier," Kiba said, "But I didn't predict that they would suck our chakra either."

"How dare they!" Naruto yelled as he started to get in his panic mode again, "They need to let us out of here!"

Meng Ka bit her lip and quickly went into action as she sat down once again and folded her hands to meditate. "Meng Ka! This isn't a time to meditate! What are you doing?!" Naruto yelled at her, "Hey! Leave her alone. If anything she can get us out of here!" Yelled Kiba as he stood in front of Meng Ka, blocking her from Naruto. The two continued to argue for a while but Meng Ka ignored them and instead concentrated on keeping her own chakra from being absorbed.

"Man, I feel like my body has been sucked up." Naruto said weakly as he sat against the wall on the other side of Kiba. Meng Ka even stayed still and unmoving as Kiba and Akamaru tried again to knock down the wall but it was useless and a waste of energy.

"Meng Ka." Shikamaru's calm voice floated over to her ears, "What are you doing?" Meng Ka opened her eyes to see the group looking over at her and she stood up, stretching a bit.

Looking over at Tinktink she smiled slightly, "Do you think he's had his full?" She asked and Tinktink chirped as she spread her wings a little. Looking over at the group she smiled brightly, "If it's chakra he's after I'll be more than happy to give it him." Looking around she followed the chakra and then stopped in the spot that was right on the opposite side of where the guy was. Making more symbols she quickly pressed her hands against the wall and concentrated all of her chakra into her hands.

As her hands began to glow white she suddenly opened her eyes and called out, "Hanashi!" Suddenly a bright burst of light shot out around her and there was a loud cracking sound as the dome burst open and sent the guy flying back into the dirt. As the light went away, Meng Ka stood there breathing heavily and smiled back at the boys, "Looks like his teammates paper bomb back fired on him." She joked.

Naruto was the first to react, "What the hell did you do?!" he yelled as he ran up to concerned if she was hurt or not and was quickly followed by Kiba.

"She sent chakra right into his system." Neji said calmly as the others walked out of the dome. "The paper bomb that you absorbed earlier, you used as part of your own chakra. Though you waited until you knew that his body couldn't handle anymore chakra so that you wouldn't have to use as much." Neji was now looking at Meng Ka in a new light. For a small child, she was dangerous.

The guy soon stood up and stared over at them, "They escaped my barrier jutsu…" he seemed to say to himself as he stood there.

"He's the only here, seems the others went ahead." Meng Ka said as she looked around and locked back onto Sasuke's chakra. They hadn't gotten too far but still they were wasting time standing here.

"Yeah, they aren't around here anymore." Neji backed her up as he looked around as well.

"Darn, just when we thought we had caught up." Shikamaru said as he sighed.

Suddenly Naruto and Kiba ran after the guy and Neji called out for them to wait but Kiba didn't listen as he attacked with Akamaru. It was like they didn't learn from the first time they had gotten cocky. He easily defeated them with one punch and Meng Ka rubbed her eyes as she sighed again.

"You guys will be my meal!" The guy finally said as he glared over at them. Kiba and Naruto ran at the guy again but like before he defeated them easily. "Not even enough for an appetizer." He chuckled as he looked at the two.

He suddenly tried to do the earth dome once again but Choji stepped up and did his expansion jutsu to keep him from doing that. They were able to hide because of the dust it kicked up and they sat in a tight circle a distance away. "We'll have to split up into two." Shikamaru said shocking the group a little.

Neji looked over to where the big buy was stand nodded his head, "I see now, even at six against one, with our chakra taken away, he's not someone we can easily defeat." He said the last part looking over Meng Ka who nodded her head, having warned them earlier about that as well.

The guy suddenly found them and attacked again, knocking over trees and earth as they quickly moved out of the way. "Naruto and I will stay and handle this guy." Shikamaru said as he folded his hands.

The guy laughed, "I don't need to see that street performance more than once."

"And who was it who got tricked by the street performance earlier?" Shikamaru called back.

"I will take care of him!" Choji said quickly as he stood in between them, shocking everyone.

"What are you saying?!" Naruto asked as he looked at him, "He's not the kind of guy you can handle on your own!"

"I will do it!" He said again, getting angry now. He then pulled out something and handed it to Shikamaru, "Take these food pills for everyone."

"What?" Shikamaru asked as he looked at him, "You aren't…" His voice trailed off as he looked at him.

"That's right." Choji nodded his head, "I have that secret weapon of mine."

"Losers." The guy said, "I won't let you have your way!" he yelled as he charged at them.

"He's coming!" Naruto yelled as they looked back at him.

"I'll get rid of all of you here!" He yelled but Choji quickly got in between, 'Go, everyone!" he said as he pulled something out of his pocket and ate a green ball. Suddenly able to hold back the guy as he slammed into him, shocking everyone.

"Shikamaru, take everyone and go!" Choji called over his shoulder.

Everyone stood there reluctant to leave Choji with this guy alone but Shikamaru straightened his back, "Alright! Everyone, let's go!" he yelled and turning to look back at him they agreed. Taking the lead, Meng Ka lead them back into the forest, turning her head to look back at Choji one last time and then she focused on following Sasuke's chakra.


	10. Chapter 10

**Finally got this chapter done! I had so much fun writing it and I hope you enjoy it. Also, I'm not sure how but I'm hoping to be able to post a drawing of Meng Ka! =neko-niki drew it and it's awesome! The eyes are a bit bluer than what I had in mind but I still love it so much and I hope to get more art from her soon! Here's her deviant art page: neko-niki .deviantart And here's the picture: neko-niki .deviantart art/Commission-Princess-Nefertiri-396005709 Let me know what you think about both the story and the picture! Thank you for all the favs, follows and reviews!**

"We're getting closer." Kiba said after Akamaru barked and Neji quickly looked ahead of them, searching for more traps.

"That's strange. We havn't ran into any more traps lately." He said as he couldn't find anymore and then looked up at Meng Ka, "What do you think Meng Ka."

Meng Ka didn't even bother looking back, "It's simple. They didn't expect us to live and come this far."

Shikamaru nodded in agreement, "We're being underestimated. Those guys think the only one following them is that big guy. They don't need to set a trap on their man."

"How dare they underestimate us!" Naruto said angrily as he looked ahead determined.

"It seems you're right." Neji said, "We are being completely underestimated. However, this is our chance."

"Yeah," Shikamaru agreed, "We'll take them by surprise."

Smiling to herself she stayed close to Kiba and Akamaru as they trailed behind and Shikamaru went ahead disguised as the big guy from before. Her ears perked up as she heard them talking to each other.

"What took you so long?" The blue haired one asked as he looked back.

"Sorry," Shikamaru said, "It took me a while to eat the scums' chakra."

The girl in the group looked back then, "Hey fatso, don't you dare drag!" She said sharply, "Hurry up and carry the coffin. That's your job, you vulgar swine."

"I know." Shikamaru said emotionlessly and Meng Ka bit on her lip. It was a great plan but something didn't feel right. Maybe Shikamaru should argue a little or something instead of acting like a robot.

"What, Jirobo, you're awfully easygoing today." The six armed guy said as he looked back at him around the coffin.

"What do you mean?" Shikamaru asked and Meng Ka would have smacked herself. If anything he could have just come up with an excuse rather than ask why.

They suddenly landed on a tree branch and the six armed guy continued to speak, "I'm just saying I'm not handing you the coffin. Because you're not Jirobo!" He said as he threw the coffin to the girl, who caught it easily. "This time I'm going to do it. Sakon, Tayuya! You guys go ahead!" He called as Shikamaru jumped at him.

He thrusted his knife at him but the guy easily caught it with a smile as the other two ran off. "Jirobo always corrects Tayuya's choice of words." He said as he started to chew on something in his mouth.

Shikamaru changed back to himself and quickly tried to kick him, "I see." He simply said as the guy caught his leg.

"Ninja art: Spider web net." He said as his cheeks filled up with something and he spit out a net right at Shikamaru, making him stuck to the tree across from him.

That's when Naruto jumped out of the trees with his shadow clones, "You!" He yelled as the guy jumped down and then formed a larger spider web to catch Naruto and his clones. They effectively got stuck but this was already planned for as now the guy was in midair.

Kiba and Akamaru quickly attacked with their fang over fang while Meng Ka went to help the others in the web. The six armed guy however quickly moved out of the way using his string. Kiba stopped and looked up at him, "I won't let you go!" he yelled at him.

The guy only laughed, "That was my line. Look at your feet." He said happily as Kiba looked down to see his feet covered in his web. "You!" he yelled this time. "It's too soon to think that you have captured us with a thing like this."

The guy only smirked, "Shut up." He said simply getting a bit cocky himself as he laughed some more. Neji suddenly jumped out behind him and almost hit him too but the guy quickly fell out of the way and soon trapped Neji in his web as well. Meng Ka having no luck getting the others out of the web, getting her hands slightly stuck to it as well. He soon wrapped Neji in the web like a cocoon and Meng Ka grinded her teeth as Tinktink burned the web off of her hands. Something she wouldn't be able to do to the others without burning them since Meng Ka was born from the phoenix flame, it didn't harm her.

Naruto cursed as he tried to cut through the web but it was no use, this web was filled with chakra and so can't be simply cut through. It was like a web version of the other guy's earth dome. Meng Ka quickly jumped at the guy from behind, hopping to get a hit in like Neji had tried but he jumped out of the way once again. As the guy shot out more webs, Meng Ka forced the wind to twist her around and out of the way, landing next to Akamaru. Tinktink quickly burned the web off of her feet and she dodged another shot of web coming at her.

As she landed on a branch next to Shikamaru she looked around, the guy having disappeared. Tinktink landed softly on her shoulder as the two listened for any movement but suddenly something shot out from behind them and caught Tinktink by the wing, nailing her to the tree. "Tinktink!" Meng Ka cried and jumped towards her but webs from every angle suddenly shot out and caught Meng Ka in midair. The six armed guy finally showed himself and only chuckled as he saw everyone caught in his web.

He lowered himself before Meng Ka with a smile, "I wonder how happy Orochimaru will be when I bring him the child from the Phoenix flame to him. He's been searching for you for a long time." He smirked as Meng Ka glared over at him and struggled with the webs that were holding her in place. He only smirked and then wrapped her in a cocoon as well but let her face remain free. "I won't you to watch as I play with your friends, it'll be great fun!" He said as he looked over at Naruto and then suddenly pulled out six long tan strings that hardened as they came out of his mouth.

"I'm going to play a game and find out which one of you is real!" He called down to Naruto, "What did you say?!" Naruto called back as everyone tensed at the threat. Meng Ka struggled in her cocoon as Tinktink struggled as well, unable to burn through the tan stuff or she would end up putting the forest on fire and effectively putting them in more danger.

The six armed guy continued to throw the stuff at Naruto's clones until finally it was only him left. The guy was a bit shocked at his luck but smiled anyways, "Well, it was a fun game but now the game is over." He then threw the stuff at the one remaining, "Die!" He yelled but then to everyone's shock, it was a clone as well. "What?!"

Naruto then suddenly jumped out and attacked him, pushing him off the tree as the two of them stumbled forward. The guy looked up at Naruto frustrated but stood up, holding a string in his hand, "You're at the end of the line!" He yelled as he pulled and Naruto fell forward. Suddenly though Neji jumped out and cut clean through the web with his hand. "What?!" The guy yelled again as he looked at Neji with pure shock. Now he seemed furious as he looked over at the two of them, "You…how?!" he asked.

Neji helped Naruto over to where the others were freed as Meng Ka tended to Tinktink's wing. She would be alright but she just needed rest for now. Neji looked down at the guy, "Anything with chakra base. It's meaningless in front of gentle fist that destroys by pouring chakra through. That guy's jutsu, evidently I'm the only one who can fight it. Go! I'll take care of this."

Everyone looked at him shocked, "Do you remember Iruka's words at the third hokage's funeral?" He suddenly asked, "Look, Sasuke is heading towards Orochimaru. We can't let him get ahold of someone from our village. Absolutely not."

Meng Ka stood up with Tinktink resting on her shoulder and put her hand on Neji's shoulder. He looked back at her from the corner of her eye, "I don't know why Orochimaru wants you but the fifth hokage trusted you to do this mission with or without us. And…" he paused as he looked over at Naruto, "Naruto, you're eyes are better than mine. Right now Sasuke is in the darkness." He turned around, facing the six armed guy but still spoke to them, "Hurry up and go. I'll catch up with you all."

Shikamaru got up then and nodded, "Ok, let's go."

Kiba smiled over at Neji, "You along with Choji be sure to catch up!"

They then took off through the trees and just as they did, more webs came racing for them but Neji quickly cut them down, "That Neji is something." Shikamaru said as they continued to race forward towards Sasuke.

The sun was setting by time they got close to them once again, "There are only two of them left," Shikamaru said, "It's four against two. We might be able to do it with one more contact if we do it well."

"All right," Naruto said excitedly, "All right! Let's do it!"

"No!" Kiba said, "It's six against two!" He called back as Akamaru barked his agreement and Tinktink chirped softly, flexing her wing.

"Ok, ok." Chuckled Shikamaru, "I'm sorry. Counting Akamaru and Tinktink, it's six against two."

"Let's finish it quickly with our new technique next!" Kiba said with a smile as he led them through the trees, Meng Ka once again slightly higher than them.

"Say, say. If necessary, I'll do an awesome shadow clone, so it'll be okay!" Naruto added.

Shikamaru looked back at him, "That's reassuring," he said sarcastically. "But my strategy comes first. Got it?"

The three of them nodded their heads; all the while Meng Ka remained silent. If they failed again she would be forced to leave them behind and go after Sasuke alone. But she felt torn as she thought of the idea, she couldn't leave them alone. Sasuke chose this path and it was his decision to leave the village and putting them in danger was reckless but it was the only thing to be done. Just what was waiting for them at the border though? Was there back up for them since they knew that they would have been chased, after all, Sasuke was a part of the village and family. Meng Ka sighed and shook her head, she wouldn't think on such things until the matter was at hand. If worse came to worse, she knew she would leave Sasuke to his fate and protect her squad first and foremost.

"We have to catch up before the sun sets." Shikamaru was saying as she listened back into what they were talking about.

Kiba smiled, "I know. Full throttle!" He said as he picked up the pace and Meng Ka fell back in line, matching his pace along with the others.

But soon night fell upon them even with their quicken pace and they had yet to catch up to them, "Darn! We still haven't caught up!" Mumbled Kiba as he glared ahead of him.

"No, this is good enough," Meng Ka finally said after remaining quiet for the whole run. "We'll maintain this distance and continue the pursuit." She spoke softly but the three of them heard her clearly, Shikamaru nodding his agreement.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked as he looked over at her.

"She means, we're delaying the attack until dawn breaks." Shikamaru answered for her.

"Get real! We can't afford such leisure!" Naruto said angrily.

"That's right!" Kiba said as well looking back at Meng Ka, "Besides, if we are going to attack anyways, isn't it more advantageous to use the darkness and attack?!" he asked furious with Meng Ka's and Shikamaru's thinking.

"For us," Shikamaru began to explain calmly, "the darkness works to our advantage only the moment we launch the attack. It'd be close to impossible to grab Sasuke, get away and escape to a safe place just in that one moment. If we couldn't get Sasuke back in that one moment, they'd most likely just focus on guarding the coffin. If that happens we won't stand a chance in the darkness."

He shook his head and continued to explain, being long winded as he usually was, "On the contrary, for the part where they wouldn't have to move needlessly, suddenly they'd get the advantage. It'd be a different story if we still have Neji's byakugan but maybe Meng Ka has something that will helps in the dark." He suddenly turned the conversation on her as he looked over at her and Meng Ka just looked ahead. "After all, not much is known about how powerful you really are."

"Hey, come on." Kiba cut in before she could say anything, "Aren't you forgetting Akamaru's nose and mine as well?"

Shikamaru looked over at them, "I was sure to include your senses of smell in the calculations! Even so, up ahead they have the geographical advantage. Plus if I can't use my jutsu and Meng Ka remains to hide her true strength, it'll be of no use. Even if I can seal off their movements, the effect will be reduced by half if clouds were to cover the moon. It's a drag but there are too many dangers and uncertain elements."

"But-" Kiba said but was cut off quickly.

"I got it!" Naruto said

"Naruto?"

"You're the leader," He said with a smile, "I'll follow your instructions Shikamaru."

Meng Ka nodded her head in agreement, she may be of higher rank but the hokage put Shikamaru in charge of this mission, "I as well."

"Right. I'm counting on you." He said to Naruto then looked over at Meng Ka, "Will you tell me your jutsu then?" He asked but it really wasn't much of a question.

Meng Ka looked over at him, "I can light the way if that is what you are asking but even then we will be at the disadvantage. Can I take them both on at once, possibly but not for certain. As for my true power, the less you know the safer you'll be. I don't like fighting, personally, and if it comes down to it I will much sooner take ya'll back to safety than go against something that Sasuke has decided for himself."

She looked Shikamaru in the eyes and he quickly looked away with a sharp nod, Naruto grinded his teeth as he glared ahead, being reminded that this was Sasuke's decision in the end. Kiba looked over at her with a look of worry on his face; he'd been keeping an extra eye on her ever since they left the village. Something Meng Ka had been worried about herself since he seemed to have named himself her protector on this trip. This was going to be a long night.

"We caught up!" Naruto said happily to the two of the remaining members with the coffin in front of them. Shikamaru, Kiba and Meng Ka standing behind him at the ready as the four of them looked over at them.

The blue haired one spoke first, "All right, I'll take of this nice and quick." He then suddenly jumped at them and Shikamaru and Kiba jumped forward, giving Naruto time to form his new jutsu.

Blue hair quickly punched Kiba and Shikamaru away but it gave Naruto the time he needed as he moved forward with his rasengan ready. But suddenly blue hair grabbed his hand and the rasengan disappeared, "There's no point if I catch you before you do it."

Suddenly Kiba came at the guy with his tunnel fang going right through Naruto's shadow clone. Blue hair dodged it but Kiba kept going on after the coffin which the girl was protecting. The guy looked behind him, "You think you succeeded just with that?" He yelled as he jumped after Kiba just as Shikamaru caught the girl with his shadow jutsu.

As Kiba got closer he suddenly stopped spinning and Meng Ka jumped from his back, grabbing a hold of the coffin as Kiba gripped onto her waist and pulled her back with the coffin. "Thanks for the coffin!" Meng Ka saidly with a smile.

"Tayuya! What're you doing idling away?" Blue hair asked her as he raced towards them. "Why do you move forward?" He asked as Shikamaru had her walk towards him, making them collide with one another just as he let go of her.

Kiba dangled from a tree limb with Meng Ka held close to his chest, he swung up and then back and Meng Ka threw the coffin to Naruto, "Here you go!"

"Nice, Meng Ka, Kiba, Shikamaru!" Naruto said as he caught the coffin and then jumped away, Meng Ka close behind as Kiba called out to Shikamaru to get moving.

The four of them race away as the other two regained their standing. Shikamaru sighed happily, "Having too much ability individually is also a problem."

"It went well." Naruto said, practically shaking with excitement.

"Yeah, just in terms of teamwork, ours was better." Shikamaru agreed

"We're not out of danger yet though." Meng Ka reminded them quickly; they were a day's run away from the village and wouldn't be safe until they passed under the village gates. "We need to stay on high alert." The three agreed with her as they got back into formation and raced off.

Kiba suddenly looked back with a growl, "They're fast." He said as the others looked back just in time to see the remaining two catching up to them.

Akamaru barked up ahead and Kiba landed next to him, "Hurry up with that paper bomb and come quickly!" He said rushed as he raced on, clearly worried about Akamaru but the dog simply barked back and looked over at the other two catching up on them. He had gone ahead and set paper bombs all along the trees. Tinktink had tried to go with him but her wing was still in pain and she rested securely on Meng Ka's shoulder.

As the first paper bomb went off, making blue hair fly back the others stopped and looked back, "Yes! It worked!" Naruto said happily as he held onto the coffin.

"Good work, Akamaru!" Kiba called back proudly as a few more went off.

Suddenly blue hair jumped out from the smoke with a glare, "Messing with me!" He said angerly at Akamaru.

Akamaru barked and jumped but landed awkwardly on a branch and fell, "Akamaru!" Kiba called out as he looked back.

"Don't you 'arf' me, you mutt!" Blue hair yelled as he raced towards him. Suddenly reaching out and wire flew from his arm and wrapped around Akamaru and the tree. "I'll waste you!" He yelled.

Kiba jumped through the trees and landed next to Akamaru just as the paper bomb near him went off. A huge cloud of smoke covered the three from Shikamaru, Naruto and Meng Ka as they looked worriedly. "Kiba! Akamaru!" Meng Ka yelled out and moved to jump forward but Shikamaru grabbed her and pulled her back.

"You idiot, you'll only get lost in that smoke!" He yelled as he looked from her to the cloud just in time to see the three of them falling over the small cliff.

"What's happening?" Naruto asked as he looked down.

"You punks!" The girl suddenly yelled as she came into view and the three of them quickly looked up.

"Where are Kiba and Akamaru?!" Asked Naruto as they still stood there.

"Another one's come!" Shikamaru reminded him. "We have no choice. I'll take care of this so you two take the coffin and go on ahead. Meng Ka, you'll naturally be in charge now."

"Shikamaru…" Naruto said as he looked over at him.

"Go already!" he yelled as the girl got closer.

The girl, however, suddenly stopped on a branch and looked up, "What are you doing here?" She asked as someone suddenly fell from the sky and landing on the coffin. He then kicked it off of the tree and took off with it. Shikamaru and Naruto yelled as Meng Ka was still in a bit of a daze as she looked back at the cliff that she had spotted Kiba falling down.

"I'm sorry, Naruto. Meng Ka." The sound of Shikamaru's voice brought her back to them and she looked over at the new comer. "It's my miscalculation."

Meng Ka's ears twitched as she heard the girl behind them mumble, "Kimimaro."

The guy stood by the coffin looking back at the girl, "You were taking too long, Tayuya. And what happened to the other three? Being none other than those of the former "Five Ninja".

"What are you?" Her voice trailed off as Meng Ka looked back at her a bit shocked. The girl seemed not only surprised but a bit scared as well. If this guy could scare someone as strong as this girl seemed then this guy meant trouble. "Your body…your body's no longer…" it was like she couldn't even form the words as she stared over at him.

"I'm not moving with the flesh anymore. It's mental power." He simply replied his face emotionless as well as his voice.

"Man, you cheater of death." The girl said as small smirk formed on her lips.

"I understand that feeling now of being information that has escaped from the prison of the flesh." He said as the two seemed to have forgotten all about the other three in the middle of them. "The feeling of experiencing a taste of Lord Orochimaru's dream. This vessel is an important vessel for the dream. But you guys were a bit too late."

Suddenly Naruto stood up, "You jerk!" He yelled at the new comer, "What're you babbling nonsense?! Give back Sasuke!" He yelled as he jumped forward only to punched down by the girl as she jumped forward as well.

Shikamaru and Meng Ka quickly jumped down and caught him, setting him down gently a Meng Ka quickly looked him over and the other two talked among themselves while Shikamaru kept an eye on him. The guy suddenly jumped up and took the coffin with him as he jumped through the trees.

"That punk!" Naruto said angrily as he watched him leave.

"Calm down, Naruto." Meng Ka said as she looked over at him.

"How can I calm down?!" I asked as he looked over at her furious. "At this rate, Sasuke will get far away again!"

"Damn punks!" The girl said, "I'll finish you this time." She angrily as she pulled out a flute.

"Naruto, Meng Ka. Listen up," Shikamaru said without taking his eyes off the girl, "Please move according to the plan I am going to tell you." He spoke softly for a few seconds telling them his plan and then looked over at them, "You got it?"

"Yeah." Both Meng Ka and Naruto said as Tinktink chirped softly on her shoulder, a bit frustrated with being unable to fly and help.

"Come on already, you punks!" The girl yelled at them.

"It's three against one." Shikamaru called back as he stood up with a danger in hand. "We have the upper hand. It's an opponent we can beat if we team up. Let's go, Naruto, Meng Ka!"

"With garbage like you jerks," The girl replied with a wide smile, "it doesn't matter how many of you are there."

"Don't underestimate our teamwork." Shikamaru calmly replied while the girl seemed to get worked up a bit by the bantering.

"Let's go!" Called out Naruto as the three of them leapt forward and raced towards her.

Shikamaru moved to hit her with the dagger but she blocked it with her flute, "Now, Naruto, Meng Ka!"

"I'll blow you away!" Yelled Naruto as the two of them jumped over her and Meng Ka rolled her eyes. What kind lame saying was that? The girl looked back at them confused as Naruto smiled over at them, "Gotcha! The strategy is a success. Farwell!" he yelled and then smacked his butt and stuck out his tongue.

"Naruto!" Meng Ka yelled at him and glared at him as he looked over at her, suddenly remembering that she was here, "Let's go already." She said with a sigh and the two of them raced through the trees after the other guy who had Sasuke now.

"Meng Ka!" Naruto called after her, "I know you're in charge but…" His voice trailed off as he looked ahead of them, his face set into a determined look as he thought about what was on his mind. "I don't want you to interfere when we catch up with this punk."

"What?!" Meng Ka asked more shocked than angry really.

"I need to defeat him on my own. I promised Sakura I would get Sasuke back." He looked over at her, "I need to do this on my own. If things look like they're getting bad then you can jump in but at least give me a chance."

Meng Ka looked ahead of them as she thought about this. Naruto couldn't stand up to this guy on his own. His chakra was different, it wasn't normal and Meng Ka didn't like it. She knew Naruto's chakra is strong and when he taps into the nine tail's chakra he's even stronger but still she didn't know what to expect from this guy. "Fine. I'll remain hidden in the trees and us surprise when I feel your life is in danger."

As they came to a clearing, Meng Ka stopped in the trees as she let Naruto continue and confront the guy. Tinktink chirped sharply next to her as they watched them fight, not liking that they were hanging back and not interfering but it was something that Naruto wanted to do. She understood though, he was always trying to prove himself to the village and if he could bring Sasuke back on his own, then even he himself would know what he was capable of.

Meng Ka stood up suddenly as she felt another chakra coming towards them. Looking over her shoulder she focused on it and with shock she noticed that it was Lee's chakra. Biting on her lip she turned back around in time to see the coffin open and watched as Naruto yelled at Sasuke, desperately trying to get through to him that he needed to come home. But Meng Ka already knew the outcome and she shook her head as Sasuke left Naruto to be killed where he stood. Thankfully Lee was close enough and kicked the guy out of the way and Meng Ka raced forward to check on Naruto.

She didn't care about the mission anymore. Sure the hokage would be angry with her about not going after Sasuke and bringing him back but it was his decision to leave the village, damn it. And she wasn't going to force someone against their will to come back to a place they were trying to get away from. Naruto was fine for the most part but he would need a doctor soon and a lot of bed rest later.

"Who are you?" The guy asked as he landed a few feet away from them.

Rock Lee stood proudly in front of the two of them, "The rejuvenated Leaf village's handsome devil," he took in a deep breath and glared at the guy, "Rock Lee!"

Naruto gazed at him in shock, "Bushy brow?" He asked a bit dazed as they stood in the grassy plain. "What about your body?!"

"More importantly, Naruto, Meng Ka. Go get Sasuke." He said as he looked back at the two of them.

"I'll stay, you go Naruto. Lee most likely still needs a healer to look after him." Meng Ka said calmly as she looked over at Naruto. "You're the only one here who could maybe talk some sense into him anyways."

Naruto looked at her and was about to say something but then nodded, "Be careful. He uses his own bones to attack."

"Quickly!" Lee said, "Go!" He gave Naruto a thumbs up but still had his eyes on the other guy as Meng Ka stood next to Lee.

As Naruto turned to leave, the bone guy suddenly jumped forward and started to attack Naruto but Lee quickly blocked the blow, "Please don't ignore me." He said with a smile on his face as Naruto ran after Sasuke.

Meng Ka smiled and jumped forward, "Don't let your guard down!" She yelled as she got his attention and he moved to block her blow but Lee jumped up and kicked him hard on the shoulder as she kicked him on his back.

Meng Ka and Lee attacked together, moving together as Meng Ka read his movements and backed him up but she was more worried about Lee than this bone guy in front of them. He had just had surgery and now he was fighting. It wasn't good but she was thankful that he had come to help. They went on like this but with each attack, Lee seemed to be getting slower.

"You're rather flexible and agile." Lee commented to the guy as they stood in front of each other.

"You're too straight forward." He replied and then looked over at Meng Ka, "You are need alive, Meng Ka."

Meng Kar glared over at him as Tinktink ruffled up her feathers, "I'd rather not be needed at all." She said as she ran at him, Lee taking her lead and does the same thing but this time they didn't move as one and instead got in each other's way as they stumbled over one another. "It's over." The guy said as he lifted his bone knife.

"Please wait!" Yelled Lee as he held up his hand and the guy looked at him with no emotion. "It's about time I take my medicine. I have to be sure I drink it, so excuse me a moment." He said as he reached behind him, all the while Meng Ka looking at him like he was crazy.

The guy watched him carefully and stood back a little as Lee took out his medicine and drank the whole bottle of it, worrying Meng Ka a bit since she wondered if he had to take all of it at once. Lee suddenly started to stumble back and for as his legs became weak and both Meng Ka and the bone guy looked at him strangely as he got into a fighting pose once again. But this time it was a bit sloppy and his cheeks were rosy and his eyes were droopy.

"Who are you?!" he asked suddenly as he looked at the two of them. "Hey! Geez, acting cool, so irritating." He mumbled as he stumbled towards them.

He suddenly fell a little bit on the ground and Meng Ka moved to help him up but Lee looked up at them with a glare, "Don't you stare at me!" he yelled as he ran towards the both of them, faster than he was before. Meng Ka quickly dodged one of his kicks as he fought the two of them at once, though Meng Ka wasn't attacking him she was trying to attack bone guy. She didn't know what was wrong with Lee but for some reason he thought he had to fight her as well.

Meng Ka jumped back a little bit of a distance between her and the bone guy as they both looked over at Lee. What was in the medicine that would make Lee act so strange? Meng Ka was at a lost as she had never encountered a medicine that would do this to anyone. Perhaps Lee just reacted to medicine differently? Sighing Meng Ka looked up at Tinktink as she flexed her wing and winced slightly. It was still sore and as much as Tinktink wanted to join in and help she couldn't. Looking back over at Lee, Meng Ka bit her lip as she stayed off to the side and watched as the other two fought.

Lee was faster, that's for sure but just what was it that Lee had drunk? It couldn't have been medicine, what kind of medicine would do that? Spotting the bottle not too far from her, she moved slowly over to it and picked it up. Looking at it, she tilted her head to the side and took a sniff from the top. She flinched back as the alcohol smell burned her nose and made her sneeze slightly. She blinked and then looked over at Lee just as he punched the bone guy, sending him rolling in the grass and losing his bone knife. For a drunk, Lee was a rather good fighter.

She remembered reading about Drunken Fist in one of her medical books but had never actually seen it before. Even though, Lee is stronger now he still needed to be looked after, even more so than before. He won't know his limits while drunk and worst of all he won't notice when he's hurt badly enough to back down. Meng Ka set Tinktink down and stood up as she watched the two of them closely. If only she could get Lee and run, that seems like the safest rout to take but they needed to keep this guy distracted long enough so that Naruto could get to Sasuke and who knows how long that will take.

Suddenly the guy's bone ripped out from his chest and cut Lee on his cheek as he stumbled back and fell. Meng Ka quickly jumped in between the two of them as Lee seemed to be getting back to his regular self. "Are you alright, Lee?" She asked softly as she looked back at him over her shoulder, Tinktink having hopped over to him was looking at the cut. It wasn't that deep so he should be alright.

"Yes-" he suddenly cut off as he gripped his head and grinched as a headache formed, "My head is pounding and what is with this cut? It seems I was drunk..." He trailed off as he looked up at her. Nodding her head, Meng Ka expected that as it was what she had read in the book but she didn't have time to look him over as she looked back at the other guy.

"Just rest for now, Lee. Your body can't handle as much as it used to." She said as she took out her daggers.

"It seems you have sobered up, this is my Kekkei Genkai." The bone guy said as he moved his eyes from Lee to Meng Ka, his face remaining emotionless. "My Kekkei Genkai freely controls osteoblastic and osteoclastic cells. It even controls the concentration of calcium. It's an ability to form bones." He continued to say as Meng Ka looked at the bones coming out of his chest and his forearms; it was a freaky sight, for sure. "Basically, there are over two hundred bones in the human body. But for me, that's not a set number."

"But still." Lee said as he stood up, "Bones are bones!" He then ran at the guy and Meng Ka yelled after him but it was too late, as the guy had even more bones come out and he spun around, hitting Lee multiple times with his bones. Lee then fell back onto the ground as the guy stopped and Meng Ka quickly landed beside him. He had many wounds now and Meng Ka bit her lip as she noticed a lot of them, he needed a hospital and rest to heal. Something Lee wasn't very fond of.

Looking back at the guy, Meng Ka stood up and glared. The looked at her and then turned to leave, "Like I said before, you are needed alive." He said as he started to walk away. Meng Ka could feel the anger in her rising a little as now the outline of her eyes were gold and the air became thick. Taking in a deep breath, Meng Ka calmed herself a little but raced forward towards the guy. All her frustrations from the past few days now building up and she wasn't going to let this guy win.

Bone guy quickly turned around and blocked her blow but Meng Ka gripped onto his bones with her hands and sent chakra blasting through the bones, watching as they shattered and bone guy quickly jumped away. Her gaze steady as he looked over at her, not even shocked. "I will kill you if you force my hand Meng Ka. You may be the key to Lord Orochimaru's dream but there are other ways to finding your village's secrets without you." He stated calmly as he looked over at her.

"Then how about you do just that and leave these other villages alone. Ninjas are here to keep the peace, not to start trouble." Meng Ka said angrily as she watched him and the two of them stood there silently in the grassy clearing as the wind stood still and thick. Chakra was racing through Meng Ka's veins and she could feel the bone guy's chakra as well. But what frightened her the most, was that she could feel the air around him, she knew that she could take it away, keep air from going into his lungs as her eyes narrowed at the thoughts racing through her mind.

Power was a dangerous thing, and it was something that Meng Ka had never lacked in. It was just something she was never used to as her true power only wakes when she is angry and looked back at this guy; she knew that she could kill him without moving. With just a simple thought she could control the air around him and either has him crushed by the weight of it or simply having him suffocate. She shivered as the dark thoughts race through her mind and the air seemed to thicken even more as bone guy started to breathe heavily but he didn't move. Meng Ka looked up at him, their eyes locking and she saw something there. Almost as if he wanted her to kill him, waiting for her to snap and prove him right. But prove him right in what? What was going on? She wasn't like this, she didn't like to fight, and she didn't like to kill. She is a healer, not a murderer.

With a hiss she ribbed her eyes away from his and turned around, taking in calming breathes as she looked down at Tinktink. She chirped softly and rubbed her head against her leg to help calm her down. She balled her hands up into fist as she thought about other things, taking her away the now and into memories. Memories of Uncle Shi and Asume as they helped to not only train her but to raise her as well. She always saw them as brothers even though they weren't and they were always there for her, for every bruise, for every cut, for every nightmare. They were the ones who raised her to be who she was, never forcing her to become a ninja like the hokage had, never expecting the impossible from her. Remembering those memories brought a smile to her face as tears ran down her cheeks. She was such a child, she thought annoyed as she whipped them away. Looking over at Lee, she bent down and focused on healing him, saving someone was what she had to do right now, not kill someone.

The bone guy narrowed his eyes at her as she ignored him and it seemed like something had snapped. She didn't know what but anger took over his actions as he looked over at her, "Is that it? The girl that Lord Orochimaru talks so fondly about, says how powerful she is and how she is the key to our dreams. Is that as far as your power goes? You won't even kill when it's your right to kill. How does Lord Orochimaru expect you to make his dream come true?" He angry but he still held a calm demeanor, it was a bit unnerving really but Meng Ka continued to ignore him and heal Lee. "Die!" he yelled suddenly as he came at them reached out as a bone began to form out of his hand and just as he was about to hit Meng Ka right in the side of her head, sand suddenly exploded between the three of them, forcing them away from each other.

Meng Ka looked up shocked as she held onto Lee, who had woken up and sat up, looking over at the person Meng Ka was looking at as well. Meng Ka sighed and smiled, "Well, it's about time you got here Gara. I can finally get a nap in." She was thankful that Gara had shown up, or else she didn't know how long she would be able to hold back her anger.

Gara looked down at her, "Are you alright?" he asked softly and Meng Ka nodded her head.

"Who are you?" Bone guy asked as he looked over at them.

"A sand shinobi, ally to the Leaf village." Gara said just as emotionless as bone guy.

Meng Ka tilted her head back, "Since when did you become a shinobi?" She asked a she looked over at Gara. He had grown a bit since last they saw each other and it didn't surprise her that he was a shinobi now, his chakra was just as powerful as Naruto's and Sasuke's. Those two had just been slacking about going up the ranks, that's really the only reason why they weren't of higher rank yet.

"Gara?" Lee asked as he looked up at him in shock, remembering the last time they had encountered one another, he had almost killed him. Gara didn't answer as he continued to look up at bone guy and walked forward, putting himself in between them.

"Gara." Bone guy said as he seemed to stretch a little, "Is that who you are?" He suddenly shot out bones from his fingertips but Gara's sand shield quickly blocked them from their target.

"Impetuous," Gara said as he looked over at the guy, "You." He said as he looked back at Lee, "When we fought, you had more speed and sharpness."

Lee looked up at him in shock but then stood up, "Easy to say, it's not that I'm holding a grudge. But because of you I kind of had a tough time of it."

Just then the sand started to go back into his bottle and Meng Ka picked up Tinktink, putting her back on her shoulder. "I see." Gara said without moving.

"But why you?" Lee asked as the two of them remained behind Gara.

Gara looked back at them, "I owe a lot." He simply said before looking ahead again.

"Alright, please back me up then." Lee said as he ran forward but Gara caught him with his sand, making him fall forward, "Gah, I got sand in my mouth! Please let me go!" he called back to Gara as Meng Ka sighed and shook her head.

Lee flinched then as Gara walked past him, "You wouldn't be able to do anything in your present state. I'll do it. Meng Ka, see to it that he doesn't do anything to get in my way."

Meng Ka nodded her head even though he couldn't see it and went to check on Lee. Like she thought before, he was going to need a hospital soon and rest, lots of rest. "Be careful, Gara. He can form bones that he attacks with." Meng Ka called out to Gara.

"Gara of the desert." Bone guy said as Gara continued to walk towards him. "You use sand as the name implies, huh." Gara suddenly attacked with his sand as bone guy attacked with his fingertips once again, back and forth they went, seeming to test each other.

"Gara of the desert," Bone guy called out, "a dopey nickname. You can't do anything if you don't have sand."

"Sand shower." Gara simply said as sand started to fall from the sky over him. Bone guy went to move but couldn't as sand had wrapped around his feet. "As long as I have sand, I can do anything. You're the one who's dopey. It's easy for me to do things like create sand from dirt." He said as he finished wrapping the guy up in sand.

"You did it!" Lee said happily.

"Not yet." Gara said as he closed his hand into a fist and the sand tightened around the guy, blood leaking out. "I'm reminded of that man when I look at that guy. Sasuke Uchiha. He had the same eyes as that guy."

"The same eyes?" Meng Ka asked as she thought about it but she really couldn't tell what Gara was saying.

Just then, bone guy broke through as lines ran down his body kind of like the others when they were reaching for their max amount of power. "It's a troublesome body, isn't it." Lee said as they looked over at the guy.

"I underestimated you, but I won't get caught by your sand again." Bone guy said as they looked at each other and Meng Ka could feel the tension in the air.

Gara quickly moved as he formed signs with his hands and then a whole wall of sand formed in front of them going after bone guy. Getting caught in in, bone guy disappeared under the sand as it flooded into the trees, knocking over many of them. Gara kneeled down and rested his hands on the sand, making the ground shake with the force of his chakra that was running through the sand. He frowned then as he looked at the sea of sand, "This guy is persistent."

A tail rose out of the sand and Meng Ka tilted her head to the side, "What is that?" She asked as the three of them watched it closely. Then bone guy came out of the sand and Gara quickly started to wrap more sand around him, trying to get him trapped in his sand coffin but bone guy was able to force his way out of it. He was completely in a different form as he had a tail now and was gray in color. Thick bones stuck out from his back and he had two horns on top of his head as he ran right for them.

Gara kept trying to capture him as he formed a thick wall of sand in front of them but bone guy ran right through it and hit Gara, forcing back a few feet from them. "Gara!" Meng Ka called out as she ran after him.

"So that's the extent of the rumored absolute defense." Bone guy said as he looked over at Gara. "How disappointing." He added.

Meng Ka helped Gara and was about to check him over when she realized that he was covered in sand. Of course, how could she have forgotten? Gara looked back at bone guy with a glare just as Lee started to attack him. Seeing that he was about to get hit Gara quickly tried to protect him but bone guy's tail went right through his sand and Lee was flung far in the other direction. Bone guy then looked over at Gara as he stood in front of Meng Ka, "You're first, Gara." He said as he pulled out his spinal cord to form a whip. He then formed more bones around his hand as he swung the whip around Gara and his sand, coughing up blood lightly as he then ran at Gara with the bone spear in his other hand.

Gara then formed a sand defense in front of him, stopping bone guy as he looked up at it. But wasting no time, he flung his bone into the sand and tried to force through but the bone around his hand soon shattered. "I gathered minerals of great hardness from the ground. Applied pressure with chakra and mixed it in with the sand. You, that unusual jutsu, it's like Kekkei Genkai, right?"

"The Kaguya clan," Bone guy replied, "The ability which now I only possess."

"The last one of the clan, eh?" Gara asked as he glanced over at Meng Ka, "Then it'll die out here today."

"Indeed, that might happen," Bone guy said, "Due to sickness, my body will not last long. But the clan will not die out. Besides, I'm not alone." Suddenly bones sprung from the ground and Gara quickly lifted them up with his sand as they looked down at the forest of bones. "Lord Orochimaru understands me!" They suddenly heard bone guy say as he came out from one of the bones as he went for Gara. Meng Ka quickly went into action as she brought her dagger up and clean through his heart, making him stop just millimeters from Gara's eye. Bone guy coughed more blood as Meng Ka felt his chakra slipping away, "I'm sorry." She whispered to him as she went a shock of chakra through her danger into his heart and stopping it completely.

"He's dead?" Lee asked as he looked over at Meng Ka, she had moved so fast, he'd never seen her move that fast before. The bones then disappeared as Gara set them down and Meng Ka gently laid bone guy on the ground and cleaned her danger in the grass.

They then stood up as Meng Ka petted Tinktink, she then plopped down in the shade of a tree and Gara and Lee sat next to her. "I would have been completely hammered." Gara said as he gently placed a hand on Meng Ka's head.

"That's not the case." Lee said, "My sensi said it often, luck is always a part of strength."

"That backseat driver?" Gara said as he looked down.

"He's not a backseat driver!" Yelled Lee as he looked over at Gara, "It's because I wasn't good enough at the time. I'm grateful for you saving us." He said with a frown but was serious. "But please, don't talk like that about my sensi."

"You, too?" Gara suddenly asked, "When you feel that the honor of someone you revere has been hurt, you yourself are hurt badly and become enraged. The more important the person you revere is to you, the greater the feeling. Fighting for the sake of someone important to you. He was also the same as Naruto. But the person who is important to oneself might not always be virtuous."

"I wonder," Said Lee, "There's no way someone evil can be thought of as an important person."

"No," Gara replied, "Even if you know they're evil. People can't defeat solitude."

The three of them remained silent as they sat in the shade, lost in their own thoughts but Meng Ka soon sighted and stood up. "We had best start heading back. Something tells me they can use all the healers they've got in the village right about now."

Gara looked up at him but didn't say anything as he stood up himself and Lee nodded. Meng Ka helped him stand up and Gara had him rest on sand as they ran back to the village.


	11. Chapter 11

**Here's another one! Hope ya'll enjoy it. And a shout out to all of my silent readers, I really love that ya'll seem to be enjoying it but I'd really really love it if you would post a review. Sagemode101 and sailorangelmoon1 can't do it all on their own, even though they are pretty awesome people. Oh and ya'll should totally listen to William Joseph – Beyond, I was inspired by that music to finish up with this chapter. But it's not he tune Meng Ka hums, that comes later in the story. Well, enjoy the show! 3**

Kiba winced as he woke up and moved his stiff arms as his eyes opened to the glaring sun as it pooled into the room. He looked away from the bright outside world and looked beside him at Akamaru's empty bed. Panicked, he sat up suddenly and looked around but then smiled as his eyes landed on a sleeping Meng Ka. She was sitting in a chair next to his bed, curled up on the seat with Akamaru snuggled close to her chest. A soft chirp made Kiba look back to the window to see Tinktink flex her wings as she sat in the window. No wonder it had been so bright, he had been looking directly at Tinktink's firey feathers. She chirped again, sharper this time as she flapped her wings and landed on his bed, rubbing her firey head against his hand.

Kiba chuckled and ruffled her feathers just as Meng Ka moved slightly and opened her eyes. They were glazed over from sleep as she yawned and rubbed them. Sitting up, she gently moved Akamaru on her lap and smiled back at Kiba, "You're awake."

"How long was I asleep?" Kiba asked as he stretched his arms, getting out all the knots as his bones popped here and there.

"Just a day, nothing too serious." Meng Ka said as she lifted Akamaru and handed him over to an eager Kiba. He took Akamaru in his arms as Meng Ka sat beside him on the bed and smiled, "Your mother was here not too long ago but she needed to leave and do some things. She brought you lunch though." Meng Ka said as she pulled up a basket filled with sandwiches.

Meng Ka pulled a sandwich out and handed it to Kiba, "Is it alright for me to eat this? I know they usually want you to only eat what they give you." Kiba asked as he unwrapped it and took a big bight out of the meaty sandwich before anyone could take it away from him.

Meng Ka chuckled, "It's alright. They just do that because they're control freaks." She winked over at him as he chuckled and ruffled her hair.

"What did I miss while I was out?" Kiba asked as he finished the sandwich and took the other one that Meng Ka offered him.

"Not much really, as you know everyone is alright and on bed rest as well. Choji and Neji have woken up and are getting a lot better. Oh and they had to tie Naruto to the bed because he was sneaking out to get ramen." She chuckled and handed Kiba another sandwich.

Kiba laughed, accidently waking up Akamaru who barked softly at him and took a bit out of Kiba's sandwich. "Hey!" Kiba smiled down at him and rubbed his head, unable to be angry with him at the moment.

Meng Ka giggled and Kiba looked up at her, raising an eyebrow. "Oh, you think that's funny?" He asked as he tore off a piece of bread from his sandwich.

"Yeah, actually I do." Meng Ka said as she stuck out her tongue at him but then gasp in shock as the bread came flying towards her and landed right in the middle of her forehead. "Hey!" she yelled as she grabbed a sandwich and did the same thing.

Kiba smirked and then started to throw the contents of the sandwich at her, Meng Ka following his lead as she did the same thing. All the while the two of them were laughing and dodging flying bread, meat, cheese, lettuce and tomato slices. Meng Ka then suddenly leapt towards him, making sure not to hurt Akamaru as she got Kiba in a head lock. Kiba laughed and started to tickle Meng Ka, making her squeal and let go of him as she rolled away. Kiba quickly put Akamaru down on the pillow and jumped on Meng Ka and continued to tickle her. Tinktink chirped as she grabbed some of the meat and brought it over to Akamaru who barked and wagged his tail as he watched the two fight each other.

"Uncle! Uncle!" Meng Ka cried out after a few minutes of not being able to get Kiba off of her and he continued to tickle her without mercy.

"Is someone calling for me?" A familiar voice said as the two froze and looked over at the door. Kakashi, Tsunade, and Shizune were standing at the door looking at the two as they were covered in sandwich material and their two companies sitting quietly on the pillows, nibbling at the meat.

"Uh, what's going on in here?" Tsunade asked as she crossed her arms and glared at the two. "You shouldn't be rough housing at the moment, Kiba. You need rest and now we have to change your bed sheets." She said irritably as she sighed and put a finger to her temple.

Kiba got up and helped Meng Ka up as well, "Sorry, Lady Tsunade" He stammered as he got out of the bed and held onto Akamaru, Tinktink flying over and landing on Kakashi's shoulder.

"Hmm, well looks like I'm going to have to rough house you for hurting my niece." Kakashi said as he narrowed his eye at Kiba.

"W-what?!" Kiba asked and then pointed at Meng Ka, "She started it!" He said and Meng Ka glared over at Kiba.

"A lady doesn't start fights," She put her hands on her hips, "But she sure can finish them." She said darkly at him as a look of terror formed on Kiba's face.

Kakashi walked over and chuckled, "Sounds like I taught you well, Meng Ka." He smiled down at her and put his hand on top of her hand. "Come on, we need to let Kiba rest and you're not helping."

"But-" Kakashi cut off Meng Ka's protest with a wave of his hand, "Come on, he needs to get more sleep." Meng Ka pouted but nodded her head, she gently hugged Kiba good bye and gave him some treats to give to Akamaru. Then Kakashi took her hand gently and lead her out of the room with an angry Tsunade.

"Why did you let him go?" Tsunade asked when they were back in her office. She was angry at Meng Ka for not bring Sasuke back but she was grateful that no one had gotten killed as well.

"Because it was his decision to leave. I wasn't going to force someone to come back to this village if they didn't want to be a part of it anymore." Meng Ka answered without hesitation as she stood in front of her desk, Kakashi behind her with his arms folded.

"Oh so once someone who was born in the village, taught the village's way of fighting and knows the village like the back of their hand wants to up and leave to be on the enemy's side it's just fine and dandy?" Tsunade said as her voice rose as she spoke, her glare hardening on Meng Ka. "You failed and because of that this village is in danger of being attacked once again. Because of you the people of this village will have to watch their backs until Orochimaru is dead!"

Meng Ka didn't back down as she glared right back at her, "This village is always in danger. That false sense of peace that you give the villagers is well and good but even during peace a village is at its most vulnerable to attacks. Orochimaru got in here just fine without Sasuke's help and Orochimaru is from this village as well, or have you forgotten?" She narrowed her eyes at Tsunade as she taken aback by her words. "If someone wishes to leave this village then let them, they are of no more a threat than anyone else. Rumors will spread, the villagers will be worried for a little while but then they'll look at their great hokage and see that she is calm and not worried and they'll move on and go back to their lives. It's something that has been done since your grandfather's times."

Meng Ka took a deep breath and shook her head as she bit her tongue and looked away. "I gave you a direct order to bring him back. You have no right to second guess my judgment, as your hokage, you must obey me."

"You are not my hokage." Meng Ka said softly, "The third hokage proved himself to me that he deserved to be in that chair but you haven't. Lord Hiruzen loved this village and saw everyone as his family. He knew every face and name and everything he did was for the village. If he were in that chair he would have let Sasuke leave because he himself knew that it was going to happen one day. He knew because he took the time to watch and get to know everyone in the village. And what have you done? All you care about is our ability to fight and how strong we are." Tears were forming in her eyes as she spoke and looked up at Tsunade, "The elders may have chosen you to be hokage but that gives you no right to force yourself on everyone. And to me at least you have to earn that right because-."

"Meng Ka!" Kakashi's sharp voice cut through the air and silenced Meng Ka before she could go on. Tsunade's expression had darkened as she looked over at Meng Ka. She was right about one thing, she didn't know the people in this village as well as she used to. For a young girl, she spoke much older than her age and Tsunade wondered what secrets Meng Ka' village held that would compel Orochimaru to be after her. Not only that but even the third hokage didn't have that much written down about Meng Ka. All she knew was that she was the last of her village and she wasn't even ten years old yet. Too young to have such an understanding of how the village is run like she seemed to now. Too young to have such a high rank among the ninjas as well, "Meng Ka, I cannot let this go unnoticed, you disobeyed an order and because of it this village is in even more danger. As punishment you are no longer a Jounin. You will no longer have a rank among ninjas but you will still be a medical-nin since even I can't deny that you have a natural talent for it. I hope you don't hate me forever for this but you are just a child."

Meng Ka shrugged, "They're just titles, nothing more." Then she turned around and left, tired of all of this arguing as she walked out onto the street, lost in thought. It was strange at how upset she was with the fact that she was no longer a Jounin. Maybe she wasn't upset but disappointed in herself as she really did want to make Kakashi proud of her but she couldn't help it as she was tired of the ways that Tsunade had handled things. Yes she was powerful and of a high enough rank to be a hokage of this village but Meng Ka had yet to see her care enough about each person in this village. Sure she healed Lee and Choji but in the end that will be to her advantage as they are very skilled ninjas.

This village is filled with all kinds of interesting and amazing people, but Tsunade only seemed to know those of high rank and people that she could use to protect the village. But how could you protect a village when you don't even know the people you are protecting, only those who are doing the protecting? It didn't make sense to her but she just sighed and shook her head as she didn't want to think about it anymore. Tinktink flew down and landed on her shoulder, rubbed her face against the side of her forehead to comfort her. Tinktink knew that Meng Ka was getting more restless as she grew and discovered knew things about her chakra but it couldn't be helped as she wasn't in her village, among people who were or had gone through the same thing. She didn't have people to explain what was going on or how to control her chakra, so naturally she was becoming restless. She would have to leave the village in search of her answers soon.

"Meng Ka?" Someone's voice trailed over to her, pulling her from her thoughts as she blinked, "You alright?" The voice asked as she looked over at Konohamaru with a blank expression. "Meng Ka?" He asked again as he place a hand on her shoulder.

That seemed to snap her away from her thoughts and she shook her head to clear it, "Y-yeah. I'm fine, Konohamaru. Thank you." Meng Ka said as she turned around to leave.

"Wait!" Konohamaru said as he held onto her shoulder, "How are you feeling? I heard about the mission and was a bit worried." He mumbled the last part and looked down as he kicked at the ground.

Meng Ka stared at him shocked as she watched him closely, still a bit uneasy with how nice he's been treating her lately. "I'm fine, just a few cuts here and there, nothing else."

"Oh, well that's good…" Konohamaru trailed off as he rubbed the back of his head and the two of them stood there awkwardly.

"Where are Udon and Moegi?" Meng Ka asked to finally put an end to their awkward silence.

"Oh! They're waiting for me at the school. We were going to go head out into the training field to get more training in." he paused as he looked the other way, "Would you like to join?"

A small blush formed over Meng Ka's cheeks and she shook her head, "Sorry but it's best that I get some rest for the time being." She mumbled as she looked away as well.

"Of course! I shouldn't have been so stupid." Konohamaru said as he straightened his back a little and smiled at her, "Well get better, Meng Ka. I'll see you around." He waved to her as he ran off in the direction of the school and Meng Ka was left alone.

She was happy for the solitude as she walked back home, lost in her thoughts and before she knew it she was back in her favorite spot in the woods. It was a small clearing with a river running through it. Yellow flowers popping up randomly during the summer as pastel colored butterflies flew around. Breathing in the sweet air, Tinktink landed softly on her shoulder and nudged her softly with her head.

Meng Ka petted her feathers and walked over to the river, watching as fish jumped out of the water, catching the bugs that flew on the water in their gapping mouths. The sound of the water lazily running along its path to the ocean soothed Meng Ka as she watched it and she stepped out onto the water, chakra flowing through her feet. Tinktink flew from her shoulder and landed onto the three closets to the river. It was almost as if she was in a trance as Meng Ka stood in the middle of the river, letting every muscle relax as she focused on her chakra, opening all of her chakra points and making goose bubs run along her body.

The wind was still as she relaxed more and then started to hum the same tune she'd been humming for as long as she can remember. It started off slow but soon became upbeat as she swayed slowly to the tune; she soon started to move around in almost like a dance only it was her ninja warm-ups. Her arms moved through the air gracefully as she began to focus first on her most natural chakra. Sparks flickered from her fingers as she spun around and then kicked a leg up, a bright red flame following her foot as it traveled in the air, the sparks still coming from her fingers. She then moved to the next most natural chakra for her, wind. The air stirred around her as she moved slowly and still humming the same tune.

By this point Meng Ka's eyes had closed as she put all her focus on controlling her chakra and the wind blew through her hair but then turned sharply and it was almost as if the wind was forming a blanket around her as it grew heavy and then light. Meng Ka manipulating the air to her will as her hands continued to move along with her feet in a graceful dance. As she stretched out her fingers far apart a sliver of electricity weaved its way through her fingers. The electricity flowed around her and through her hair as she moved, more sparks bursting from her finger tips as well. Suddenly Meng Ka dipped back, one foot on the river as her other knees kicked up in the air and her arms were held above her head as her fingers dipped into the water. Now focusing on the more harder elements, she shot back up as mud from the river's bottom followed her fingers in small spheres; looking almost like dark bubbles as they swirled around her.

Her movements became a bit faster as she let the chakra run through her and she got ready for the hardest element, water. Taking a deep breath and then starting the tune up again she brought her hands down to the water and pulled them back up with strings of water following her fingertips. She moved them all around her as she balanced on one long and spun around and around and then suddenly stopped as she let the water fall down. Still humming she rolled her shoulders and then went through the dance motions faster, only this time she was control two at a time, fire with water as she formed a cloud of steam around her then wind and earth as she shaped the mud and moved it with the wind. Then the hardest part as she paused and moved slower, lifting a leg high up in the arm and spinning in a slow circle as bubbles of water rose from beneath her and inside the bubbles were little lights of electricity as they flickered inside the bubbles. Moving them carefully around her as she came to the last part of the tune and then let a burst of wind run through the bubbles popping all of them.

She took another deep breath as she stood on one leg with the other folded beside her and her hands were pressed together in a water symbol in front of her. She was completely out of breath as she stayed like that and continued to calm her breathing but just as she opened her eyes she heard clapping and the scent of cigarette smoke filled her nose. "You've gotten better at that. Now control three at a time." Asuma said with a huge smile on his face as he looked over at Meng Ka.

Meng Ka pouted over at him, "Asuma, you know I can't do that." She mumbled as she crossed her arms, "It's hard enough to control water with electricity."

Asuma chuckled and waved her over to him. Meng Ka walked over to him and gave him a hug, "A curtain white haired know it all told me that you're little temper has been getting the best of you lately." He said as he looked down at her. "I think some time away from the madness will do you some good. How about you come over, Kurenai is making pork dumplings."

Meng Ka seemed to perk up at the thought and she smiled up at Asuma, "I won't be intruding will I?" She asked as she was walking thinking about Kurenai's cooking, making her mouth water.

Asuma chuckled and picked Meng Ka up, "It's time you start acting your age Meng Ka. As long as you're shorter than me you're never an intrusion. Now come on, kid. We'd best not be late, you know how Kurenai can get."

Meng Ka giggled and looked over her shoulder, "Come on Tinktink, I know you're tempted too." She smiled as Tinktink chirped in reply and landed on her shoulder as Asuma carried her out of the woods and back into the village life.


	12. Chapter 12

**GAH! I'm so sorry for taking so long! OMG, a month! I can't believe it's been so long! I'm in my senior year right now so work and college are taking over my life at the moment. I was hoping to get this up a few days ago but I didn't want to end it right in the middle plus I wanted to give ya'll lost of Kiba/Meng Ka time to make up for the long wait! I really hope ya'll enjoy it! And as always, don't be shy and leave a review, let me know what you think of it so far!**

Darkness, it was everywhere but it wasn't the kind of darkness that night brought. It was the darkness that consumes you and makes you lose all sense of time and place. Where was she? Was she on solid ground or floating in the air, was that a breeze or her imagination? There was no scent in the air, nothing underneath her feet. It was almost as if she was floating in a black hole, with no one to call out to for help or any sense of if she were standing or upside down. Nothing seemed to move in this darkness, she didn't even know if she were moving herself. She heard it first, a faint sound in the distance. Then as the voices grew louder, she began to feel hotter, the air thickening around her as she could feel the smoke burning her eyes and throat. As she coughed from the smoke, it seemed to set everything into motion.

The screams were unbearable as people were killed and burst into fire and ash all around her. Everything was on fire as they ran and screamed out for help. Now she was running with them, running away from an unknown evil that was killing everyone around her. The air was still thick with smoke and her body was covered in it as sweat poured down her face from the heat. The fire was everywhere, there was no escaping it. She suddenly stopped as she came to the edge of a cliff that seemed to only fall back into the darkness that she was in only moments ago. The screams were getting louder and the flamers hotter. Turning around, she looked for a way out but the flames were all around her as they closed in.

Then there was a sickening thud sound as she looked to her right, only to see Orochimaru standing behind a woman with dark auburn hair that covered her face. Orochimaru had his sword stuck into her back and coming out of her chest, a crazed look in his eye as a smile crossed his face. The world seemed to stop as the woman's head lifted slowly to look at her, blood was falling from her mouth as she softly smiled at her and reached a pale hand out to her. "My daughter, don't forget who you are. You'll be safe." She coughed up more blood as Orochimaru started to laugh and twisted the sword, making the woman scream. With a sudden intake of air, she burst into flames and turned into ash.

Tears streamed down her face as she watched the flames coming closer to her, the smile on Orochimaru's face never leaving as his laughter became louder and mixed in with the screams of the villagers. She covered her face as she began to scream, "No! Go away!"

"Oh yes, you're next Meng Ka." She heard Orochimaru say as she opened her eyes to find herself consumed in the flames. "I will kill everyone you love and just like Sauska, you will come to me."

"No!" Meng Ka screamed out as her eyes began to glow gold and her blood began to boil as the flames became so hot that her flesh was starting to melt off of her. Suddenly, Meng Ka let out a high pitched scream, sounding almost like a bird's cry, in her sleep; the white phoenix flame pouring from her chakra points as it consumed her and the room. Kakashi woke with a start as he heard her screaming. He raced out of bed and ran to her room but as he opened the door he fell back slightly from the heat of the fire, burning his arm in the process.

"Meng Ka!" He yelled out worriedly as he tried to get closer to her but the hot flames kept him at bay as he called out to her once again. He moved to get closer, wanting to pull her from the flames but right before he was about to run through them, Tinktink flew in his way and pushed him back. She flapped her wings franticly as she chirped but it was drowned out by the scream that came from Meng Ka once again as it echoed throughout the village, waking many villagers and alerting the ninjas on duty. Asume was the first to burst through the door as he quickly ran to Meng Ka's room and stopped in shock as he saw the flames.

"What's going on?" He asked Kakashi as the two stood there as Tinktink flew back into the flames and more ninjas gathered around in the small house, terrified of what they saw.

"I don't know. I think she's having another nightmare." Kakashi said as the two looked knowingly at one another. Meng Ka almost always had nightmares about her village's downfall but it had never gotten this bad before. She always had a good control over her chakra and only lost control when she was very emotional.

Suddenly, they saw something gold shining in the middle of the flames and it seemed to consume them as they retreated backwards and away from everyone. As the flames disappeared, everyone could see Tinktink as she glowed in the middle of the room and seemed to be absorbing the flames. As she returned back to her normal color, Meng Ka's screams stopped as she lay on a pile of ashes that were once her bed. Kakashi and Asume quickly ran to her side as they checked to make sure she was alright but then quickly ran her to the hospital.

With a start, Meng Ka gasped for air and sat straight up as a pulse of chakra ran out from her and destroyed the entire level of the hospital. Wincing, Meng Ka held her head as it pounded and the light seemed to hurt her eyes. She heard a soft chirp beside her as she felt the warm head of Tinktink press against her cheek. Smiling, she opened her eyes and rested her hand on Tinktink's head.

The burst opened as Sakura burst through the door franticly looking around before resting her eyes on Meng Ka. "You're awake!" She said happily as she walked into the room, "I guess that random pulse of chakra jerked you awake." She said more to herself. "The whole floor is a mess as everyone is running around trying to fix up the place and make sure everyone is alright."

Meng Ka couldn't help the guilty look that came over her face as she smiled innocently up at Sakura. "Oops." She said with a nervous laugh as she watched Sakura's face darken.

"Well look who finally decided to wake up." Kakashi said as he walked into the room and ruffled her hair, "Someone told me you were awake."

"Well of course!" Sakura yelled, "She announced it to the whole floor!" She motioned her arms out to the hall and began to lecture Meng Ka about controlling her chakra and how she could have hurt many people.

"Sakura." Kakashi said calmly as he rest his hand on her shoulder, "That's enough. I'm sure Meng Ka is starving, could you get her some food please."

Sakura paused but then nodded her head as a determined look came on her face, "Of course. I'll be back shortly."

Kakashi sighed as he sat down on the bed beside her and Meng Ka snuggled onto his lap with a smile. Kakashi chuckled as he petted her hair and Tinktink rested on his bent knee. "You know, I always forget just how little you still are." He said softly as the two remained in silence, enjoying each other's company.

"Uncle Shi?" Meng Ka finally spoke up, "How long have I been asleep?"

Kakashi didn't answer for a while and Meng Ka was beginning to think that she had been in a coma for years or something. "Only two weeks." He finally answered her before she could fully panic but the answer to help to calm her much either.

"Two weeks!" Meng Ka yelled as she sat up on Kakashi's lap and looked at him with a horrified look on her face. "My berries and jams! Oh, everyone must be wondering where they are. I didn't hurt anyone did I?" Meng Ka quickly asked as she thought about the last thing she remembered and all she could remember was fire.

Tears started to roll down her face as the nightmare came back to her and Kakashi pulled her back to his chest as he comforted her. Rubbing her back and telling her everything was going to be ok and that everyone was alright. It took a little while but soon Meng Ka was just hiccupping as Kakashi made fun of her and Tinktink joined in on the playful jabs.

The door opened again but this time Tsunade walked through the door, "Ah good you're awake and well. You had many of us worried for a while there." She smiled at Meng Ka but only got a frown in return.

"Do you need anything Lady Tsunade?" Kakashi said as he stood up and put Meng Ka back on the bed.

"I just came to see if Meng Ka was fit for another mission." Tsunade said as she looked over at Kakashi, "I've sent Kiba, Naruto and Hinata on a relatively easy mission but I feel that they may need to a medic with them. Seeing as how they couldn't even catch a bug properly when together."

Meng Ka perched up a bit when Kiba was mentioned but Kakashi shook his head, "They already left and Meng Ka just woke up. She's staying here." He said as he moved the broken chair closer to the bed and sat down in what was left of it.

"Well, I think that's up to Meng Ka to decide." Tsunade said as she looked back at Meng Ka, "I would greatly like for you to go on this mission but if you don't feel up to it then you don't have to go."

Meng Ka narrowed her eyes at Tsunade, wondering what she was up to but the thought of being able to spend time with Kiba after only seeing him still in the hospital when she last checked up on him. It was tempting and Meng Ka knew that Tsunade was using that to her advantage. With a shrug, Meng Ka nodded, "I think I should probably get out and stretch my legs after all."

With a bright smile, Tsunade nodded her head. "Alright, the mission is to capture the man who stole the Misogi tea jar owned by a feudal lord of the Land of Tea. This man," Tsunade pulled out a photo and handed it to her, "Gosunkugi. According to sources, he's now hiding in the Land of Stone."

Raising an eyebrow she looked up at Tsunade, "And Naruto actually agreed to go on this mission?"

Tsunade chuckled, "Not at all but I was able to convince him to go. I figured it best to get them on a couple of easy missions after all the commotion that's been going on lately. But still, those three have yet to accomplish any mission together so I figured it'd be best to send you to keep them from getting killed."

Meng Ka nodded and really didn't care about her true reason for having her go on this mission, she just wanted to get out of the village and get some clear air to think. Kakashi was a bit harder to agree to it but seeing as how Meng Ka made up her mind, he knew it wouldn't be changed. Helping her pack up a few things, he walked her to the gate, then she was on her own.

It didn't take long catching up with them as she spotted them in a clearing, eating. Kiba was just about to throw a rice ball to Akamaru and as it sored through the air, Tinktink quickly swooped down and took the rice ball before Akamaru could catch it. Barking, Akamaru ran after Tinktink as she flapped around and waved treat in front of him. Everyone watched in confusion as Meng Ka walked out to them with a chuckle.

"You're awake!" Kiba said excitedly as he ran over and hugged her. Meng Ka smiled and hugged him back and then smiled at the other two as Naruto looked at her confused.

"What are you doing here?" He asked as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Tsunade sent me to take your place." Meng Ka fibbed a little, "She said that you can go back since you're too good for this kind of mission."

Naruto stared at her and then became angry, "Oh yeah! I'll show her! Too good for this mission, ha! I'll finish it so quickly she'll want to put me on all of the missions!" Naruto said now fired up.

Tinktink finally let Akamaru have the rice roll and ran over to Meng Ka as he swallowed the last of it and jumped in her arms, barking and wagging his tail. Meng Ka kissed his nose as Tinktink sat on Kiba's shoulder, who rubbed her head with a smile, "These kind of missions are alright every now and then." Kiba said as he looked over at Naruto. "Let's take it easy."

"It's a cinch mission so all the more reason I want to finish it up quickly." Naruto argued back, "What'll happen if the Pervy Sage comes back while I'm gone?"

Hinata blushed as she stood next to Naruto, "I'm sorry, Naruto." She said softly, "I, um, I was so happy to be on a mission with you." Her voice became softer as she spoke, so much to the point no one would hear her.

"Huh? What did you say, Hinata?" Naruto asked as he leaned in closer to Hinata, making her blush even more. "I can't hear you." She quickly turned away from him as he leaned away from her. "Why are you blushing? You're a weird one."

Meng Ka and Kiba were barely able to hide their laughter as they watched the two of them. "Well hold your horses, look." Kiba said as he pointed to a few mountains. "We'll be in the Land of Stone once we cross the mountain pass. Be sure to fortify yourself with food by then."

Naruto looked down at the riceball that was made to look like him. "Well it's kind of hard when it's like eating myself." He said softly as he took a bit then smiled, "Hey, this is good." Then he looked over at Hinata, "Hinata, you'd make a great wife."

"What?" Hinata said with a shocked expression as her face began to turn red from blushing so much.

"Alright then, let's go." Meng Ka said and the four of them started to head for the mountains, soon crossing over into the Land of Stone. After that, it didn't take long to come across the first village, "This is their first post." Meng Ka said as they looked down at it.

"Doesn't it look a bit rough?" Kiba said beside her, Meng Ka looked up at him and nodded in agreement. They walked into the village with caution as they looked around seeing nothing but sand and closed doors. The place seemed deserted as they walked in, crows flying around and sitting on buildings as the wind kicked up sand.

People stood outside, watching them suspiciously as they walked by but no one made a move to come towards them or to even speak with them. "What are these guys doing, just staring at us?" Naruto asked under his breath.

Kiba suddenly placed his arm over Meng Ka's shoulders as he pulled her and Akamaru closer to him, his eyes on the villagers. "This doesn't feel like we'll be able to do this lickety-split." He said calmly as Akamaru growled and jumped from Meng Ka's arms "What is it, Akamaru?"

Akamaru continued to growl as he looked ahead of them, "Could it be that the Gosnkugi guy is among them?" Meng Ka asked as she looked around a bit more closely.

Suddenly Naruto threw one of his daggers, "I've got you!" He yelled just as his dagger hit a poster.

"A photo." Hinata said as the four of them looked over at it.

"What, this is Gosunkugi, isn't it?" Naruto said as he read the poster, "3 million ryo? What's the meaning of this?"

"Look" Hinata said, "They're posting them over there and here too." Looking around the four of them could see that the posters hung everywhere.

"Alright, I'll try asking someone." Naruto said as the other three looked over at him. Meng Ka bit her lip slightly as she looked around, Kiba still holding her close to him. For some reason, Meng Ka figured asking wasn't going to do much for them around here. They walked up to an Asian Saloon and walked in, "Hello." Naruto said loudly as they were inside and walked over to the bartender.

"Can I help you?" He asked friendly enough but the atmosphere was thick with tension.

"I have something I'd like to ask you." Naruto said, returning the friendly tone.

"What, if you're not a customer, beat it." The bartender said, his tone suddenly changing.

"Then I'll order something." Naruto said with a smile and Meng Ka sighed, knowing that they were going to get anywhere with this. "I'll have ramen."

"I'll have hamburger steak with cheese," Kiba pitched in, "And he'll have milk."

Meng Ka groaned, they didn't seem to understand the situation at all and a man starting to laugh confirmed that for her as well. "This is funny. Milk? Hamburger steak with cheese?"

Another one of his friends pitched in a well, "And ramen to top it off." The group laughed, making the bartender even more angry.

"Are you trying to make a fool of me? Get out you brats!" He said as he slammed his hand on the bar.

But Naruto still didn't seem to get it, "If it's money, then we have it."

"That's not the issue." The bartender said through clenched teeth.

Suddenly a rather large man grabbed Naruto's wrist as he held out his money bag, "Oh, it's dangerous for kids to carry such a large amount of money. I'll take charge of it for you. After all, there are lots of bad men in this town."

"Hey, what are you doing?" One of his friends called out from the poker game that they were playing, "Are you still in?"

"Oh, one minute. I've got the money, I'll be right over." He called back to them and he pulled on the bag, "Huh? What's with you? Hey, let go!" He yelled at Naruto.

"You're the one who'll let go." Naruto said angrily as he kicked the man back onto one of the tables. "How about that?"

The large guy got up and glared at him, "You brat, you wunna fight?"

"Oh that's the plan." Naruto said back, "Bring it!"

The big guy pulled out a large clubbing knife and growled at them. "Hold it, Naruto." Meng Ka said concerned. "Look around."

Looking around, Naruto noticed that every man in the room had gotten up and pulled out their own weapons, "Well, this isn't good."

Then a man in the corner stood up, his hat covering his face, "Master, milk." He called out to the bartender.

The large guy glared over at him, "Who the hell are you?"

The man in the corner walked over to the bartender and leaned against the bar, "Oh! Yes, coming right up!" The bartender said quickly as he poured a class of milk. "Here you are."

The man thanked him and grabbed a small plate, setting it in front of Akamaru and pouring the milk in it for him, "Now no need to hesitate, drink up. It's a treat form old billboard balled head over there."

"Oh, are you referring to me you asshole?" The large guy asked as he took a step towards the guy. "Who would treat some puppy with milk?" He suddenly ran at the man, "You want to get killed!" He yelled as he raised his clubbing knife but the guy cut straight through it with his samurai sword and then knocked him out.

Pulling out a poster that he had in his pocket with a photo of the guy on it, "Bounty, Michizo Manaka." He sat it on the bartender's bar, "You can take the credit, master. Take the money for the milk from the bounty and the money to repair the table too. I don't need change." He said then began to walk out.

"He's strong." Said Kiba as they watched him leave.

"And cute." Meng Ka said with a dreamy look on her face but then shocked replace her face as she looked over at Kiba, "Did I just say that?"

"What?!" Kiba asked shocked looking down at her as a small blush formed on his cheeks. "Yes…no…yes! I mean, I don't care. Why would I care?" He stammered and crossed his arms he looked away.

"Huh?" Meng Ka asked as she tilted her head to the side, "Why are you asking like Hinata, Kiba?"

"I'm not acting like Hinata!" he yelled in frustration.

"Yeah, you're too loud to be acting like Hinata." Meng Ka teased him with a smile but before he could say anything as Naruto ran after the guy and rest of them followed.

"Wait! Who the heck are you old man?" Naruto asked.

The guy turned to look at them, puzzled at first but then smiles, "I'm Sazanami, a bounty hunter." Then he turned and started to walk away.

"How cool!" Naruto said amazed, "Hey, old man!" Naruto called again as he caught up to Sazanami, the others following them quietly. "Say say, that thing earlier was cool."

"Hmm," Sazanami said as he continued to walk, "The iai-nuki?"

"It was so fast, I couldn't see when you drew your sword." Naruto continued.

"It was really surprising." Hinata pitched in from behind the two of them.

"I bet that's what they mean when they say 'in a blink of an eye." Kiba add with his hands shoved in his pockets while Meng Ka continued to hold Akamaru and remained quiet, still a bit weirded out by what she had said earlier.

"Life and death is on the line for us bounty hunters." Sazanami answered calmly, "No matter how many lives we can have, it wouldn't be enough if we couldn't draw our sword faster than others.

"Say, say! Say, say!" Naruto said exactly, "What is a bounty hunter?"

Meng Ka raised an eyebrow, curious as to how Naruto wanted so badly to become the greatest ninja but didn't even know what a simple bounty hunter was. "Let's see…" Sazanami said as he trailed off trying to figure out how to explain it to them.

Finally speaking up, Meng Ka pitched in, "There are people who offer a bounty in order to capture criminals. So as the name implies, bounty hunters catch those criminals and receive the bounty."

Sazanami looked over his shoulder at her and nodded his head, "Exactly."

"Hmm." Naruto said softly as the wheels in his head started to turn a little. "Then this guy has a bounty on him, right?" He said as held up the photo that Tsunade had given them.

Sazanami looked at it and then stopped walking; turning to look directly at them, shock plainly on his face. "Boy, that's…"

"Why's there so much money on his head?" Meng Ka asked curiously as she noticed that he must know who the guy is and walked up to stand by Naruto. "According to the Hokage, he is simply just a common thief."

"A simple thief, you say?" Sazanami asked, looking over at her and away from the picture. "Girl, this guy's a super A-rank bounty who has killed dozens of people for the sake of stealing."

"What?" Naruto asked shocked.

"No way!" Hinata said worriedly as she pulled her hands closer to her chest and face.

"Say what?" Kiba said in a shocked tone as he moved a bit closer to Meng Ka and Akamaru.

Meng Ka on the other hand didn't even blink as he told her this news, "Figures, Tsunade never did seem to tell the whole truth when sending people on their missions. That's what she must have been up to earlier." She said that last part more to herself as she looked down at Akamaru who whimpered slightly.

"What's the meaning of this?" Kiba went on, "I haven't heard about that."

"The feudal lord who commissioned this mission might not have known about that." Hinata said, trying to make things sound better than what they were.

"Hokage?" Sazanami asked, "Mission?"

"Yes," Naruto answered, "We're Hidden Leaf Ninjas." He said proudly, pointing to the group. "And we came to capture Gosunkugi."

"Well, ya'll are." Meng Ka smiled humorously, "I'm just here to make sure ya'll are able to walk back home."

"Huh?" Naruto said shocked but then laughed, "Oh, yeah. I keep forgetting about that Meng Ka."

"Eh," Kiba shrugged and looked the other way, "I still say you can't lower someone's ninja level." He mumbled softly, still a bit sore about when Meng Ka was no longer a ninja anymore.

"Leaf?" Sazanami asked, seeming far off and didn't really here them. "So you're ninjas, huh?" He laughed slightly and smiled at them. "This is interesting. So even kids like this are qualified to be ninjas?"

"What?" Naruto said angrily, "Don't make fun of us."

"Well, don't get mad." Sazanami said, "Sorry about that. I'll treat you guys to something. Milk?"

"We're not Akamaru." Naruto pouted, "I want ramen."

"And I'll have a cheese burger steak." Kiba added with a smirk.

"I guess I'll have ramen, too." Hinata said quietly.

Sazanami nodded his head and then looked over at Meng Ka, leaning down to her level. "And you?" He asked with a smirk.

Meng Ka tilted her head to the side and found her eyes following the three scares on his face. In a strange way he reminded her of Uncle Shi when he wasn't covering his face. But still, she didn't know if she should trust this guy, after all he was still a stranger. With a shrug, Meng Ka smiled innocently and played the part of a small child, in other words, her age. "Surprise me." Best to catch him off guard if he thought she wasn't a threat.

"Ok, come with me." He smiled and held out his hand for her to take. Meng Ka took it and swinged their arms back and forth like she used to with Asume and Uncle Shi. A low growl coming from Kiba as he trailed behind them.

After a while, they were out of town and away from all of the people, "What is this? We're rapidly moving away from town." Naruto noted a he looked around. "I don't see a ramen shop anywhere."

Sazanami stopped suddenly and let go of Meng Ka's hand. Meng Ka skipped backwards and stood next to Kiba. "Now then." He said softly before turning around. "I don't see any ramen shops. So what I said earlier about treating you guys is canceled. Sorry, but you guys are going to die here."

"Old man…" Naruto started to say as shocked fell on everyone's faces. "What's the idea?"

"To think you guys know that Gosunkugi is in this town." Sazanami said.

"What if we do know?" Meng Ka asked calmly.

"Gosunkugi is my prey. I can't hand him over to you." Sazanami answered.

"That's enough." Kiba said angerly. "You should just go get him yourself."

"No, even if you guys are kids." Sazanami shook his head, "it's a different story when it comes to leaf ninjas. It's better to have fewer, wait…no competitors." He said lowly as he drew his sword and readied himself to attack.

"Old man." Naruto said, "Old man." He repeated worriedly.

"Here I go." Sazanami said almost as if to taunt them. He raced towards them as Naruto throw his dangers at him but he blocked them with his sword. He then came up behind Hinata and placed his sword at her neck, while holding her arm behind her back.

"Hinata!" Naruto and Kiba called out as Meng Ka and Tinktink watched off to the side and out of the way, noticing how his movements lacked the intention to kill.

"Ninja Art of Beast Mimicry, All-Four justu!" Kiba said as he folded his hands and then lowered to the ground on all fours, his chakra flowing off of him.

"Interesting." The man said as he knocked Hinata out just as Kiba came after him. Sazanami dodge him and as Kiba looked around, appeared behind him and hit him in the neck, right on a pressure point that knocked him out cold. Akamaru ran after him but Sazanami easily knocked him out as well. Looking over at Naruto, he seemed to have forgotten all about Meng Ka. "Boy, you're the last one."

"Shadow Clone Justu!" Naruto called out as his clones surrounded Sazanami and attacked all together but Sazanami easily killed them all and just as Naruto seemed to have taken him from surprise by jumping out of the ground behind him, Sazanami quickly hit him with the back of his sword and knocked him out as well. "Almost. Forgive me, boy. I'll be the one to beat him, no matter what."

"Forgetting someone?" Meng Ka called out to him calmly. As Sazanami looked over at her, he had to squint his eyes against the setting sun that seemed to light her auburn high a blaze as her turquoise eyes sparkled against the light.

"Ah, of course not girl. I was hoping I wouldn't have to hit you as well." Sazanami smiled and rested his hand against the halt of his sword.

"I don't care for fighting nor do I care about the past that you have with this Gosunkugi. But the Hokage expects these three to come home alive and the only way to get them back home is with Gosunkugi." Meng Ka tilted her head to the side as Sazanami chuckled.

"Rather bold words for a child." He said with a smile but his eyes were hard and his body tense.

"Don't judge a book by its cover." Meng Ka shrugged, "Something bounty hunters should well know. I'll give you 20 minutes of a head start, and then I'm waking these three. I'd best hurry if I were you."

Sazanami's smile lowered and he seemed unsure of what to make of Meng Ka for the first time. At first glance she seemed like any other harmless child but standing there in the sunlight, she seemed to radiate power as she calmly watched his every move. Nodding his head in a silent agreement, he took off back to the village.

True to her word, twenty minutes later she was leaning over Kiba as she shook him awake. Akamaru barked at him, biting on his jacket and pulling slightly. "Akamaru…" He said a bit dazed before looking up at Meng Ka and sitting up to see the other two awake. "Are you alright Meng Ka?"

Meng Ka nodded, "Yes, he didn't really like the idea of beating up a girl as young as me." She smiled but Kiba didn't smile back.

He moved to get up with a grunt, "Damn. He got us good."

"Hinata, are you ok?" Naruto asked as he looked over at her.

"Yeah." She said softly

"Where's Sazanami?" Kiba asked as he looked around them.

"Could it be he went after Gosunkugi?" Naruto asked.

"Of course he did." Meng Ka said, "We went back to the village after he knocked you out, Naruto."

"I can't just sit here like this!" Kiba said standing up, "He'll beat us to the draw, no thanks to you, Meng Ka."

"What?!" Meng Ka said, standing up herself, anger clear in her eyes. "What did I do?"

"You could have stopped him!" Kiba said, "From the looks of it, the two of you didn't even bother fighting. You're supposed to help protect your teammates!"

"And I was, ya'll are alive after all. He didn't even attack with the intention to kill and if you can't even see that during your fight then you still have a long way to go buddy." Meng Ka said while the two of them came nose to nose.

"You were just standing there watching." Kiba threw his hands in the air, "Was he really just that too hot, that you couldn't even kick his ass?!"

"Oh, please. Are you still mad about me calling him hot earlier?" Meng Ka asked, "I didn't even know why I said that in the first place. And you can't just run into a fight recklessly without thinking. You need a plan!"

"Oh so now that you find out that he's the enemy you suddenly don't know why you called him hot. You still could have killed the guy and then we wouldn't be in this situation!" Kiba growled darkly at her.

"I don't like to kill, Kiba!" Meng Ka screamed, "Nor do I like to fight or hurt other people and you know that Kiba!" She stomped her foot on the ground, kicking up dust.

"Um…guys?" Naruto asked.

"What?!" The two of them yelled as they looked over at Naruto.

"How about we save this for later." He laughed nervously as he backed away from them. "We still have a criminal to catch."

Kiba and Meng Ka glared up at each other before turning away from one another. "Lead the way Naruto." Meng Ka said through clinched teeth. They then quickly ran back to the village and as they entered it, no one was in sight. "Damn, where is that old man?" Naruto asked looking around.

Akamaru suddenly sniffed the air and barked, motioning towards a few mountains in the distance. "Did he leave town?" Kiba asked as he looked up over at them. Akamaru then took off in front of them and they followed the puppy without hesitation. After a while of running through the rocks, they caught up to Sazanami and were able to chase off four strangers.

Just as Naruto was going to run after them, he called out to him, "Wait!" He looked back at Sazanami to see him bloody and beaten. "Boy… you must not go." He said before he fell down.

"Old man!" Naruto called out as they came over to him, "Old Man Sazanami."

"Stay away from him." He whispered to them, "He is too much for you guys."

His eyes then closed and he became still, Meng Ka walked over to him and checked for a pulse, happy to find one. "Come on, I think I saw a building not too far from here." They helped in carrying him back to the building and once inside, Meng Ka quickly went to work healing him and then wrapping him in bandages.

"How could such a strong guy be beaten?" Naruto asked in amazement.

"Gosunkugi isn't a mere thief." Kiba said as he looked over at Meng Ka in the corner of his eyes. "He's a shinobi, same as us."

They fell silent but then Hinata motioned for them to be quiet and they nodded in acknowledgement. Jumping up to the roof, Hinata blew out the candle and just as she made it up beside Meng ka a man came crashing into the building. Naruto jumped down and kicked the guy in the face just as Kiba ran at him and punched him in the gut before kicking him in the chin with his knee. "Is this one of Gosunkugi's comrades?" Naruto asked

Meng Ka was then able to get a good look at the guy, "You! You were in the bar from earlier." She called out as she jumped down, followed by Hinata.

"Damn!" The man called out and then turned to run away from them.

"Who was that guy?" Kiba asked with a sigh. "Huh? What's this?" He asked as he bent down and picked up a flyer, "A wanted flyer."

"Did he mistake us for Gosunkugi?" Naruto asked looking over at Kiba.

"No, that's not it." Kiba said then read from the flyer, "This man who calls himself Tokichi is a major criminal who has killed a family of three. He has a bird shaped birthmark on his chest."

"Bird shaped birthmark?" Hinata said worriedly, "It couldn't be.." Looking over at Meng Ka who pressed her lips together.

"What is it Hinata?" Naruto asked.

"I couldn't tell because of all the scares on his face but he has a bird shaped birthmark on his chest." She said as she looked over at the guy. Kiba and Naruto looked as well in shock as Meng Ka took hold of the flyer and read it over again.

"He has a bounty on his head too?" Kiba asked as he looked over Meng Ka's shoulder at the picture.

"What the heck is going on with everything?" Naruto asked as he shook his head.

Meng Ka smacked Naruto on the back of the head and then put her hands on her hips, "There is no need to freak out and be so dramatic Naruto. Now more than ever, you should remain calm. We'll just bunk down here for the night and wait til morning when he should hopefully wake up." Looking down at the flyer, she read over it one more time before looking back at Sazanami. "Hopefully he won't be so stubborn this time." She said more to herself than anyone else then looking over at the three of them she smiled, "Well then, we should all get a good sleep. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

Come later that night, the four kids were fast asleep. Naruto sleeping at the head of Sazanami as he sat up right with his back leaning against the wall for support, a soft snore coming from him. Hinata had settled on falling asleep on her side right on the floor while Kiba was asleep much like Naruto only on Sazanami's right. Meng Ka had fallen asleep in Kiba's jacket with Akamaru sat snuggly in her lap. The only light in the room was coming from Tinktink as she sat in the window with her head tucked under one of her wings.

Meng Ka shifted slightly in her sleep, as her eyebrows farrowed together and sweat started to form at her brow. Her breathing became faster and more unsteady as she shifted some more in her sleep. Then with a start, Meng Ka shot right up, knocking Akamaru awake with a small bark as he shot out of your lap looking around for danger. Meng Ka took in a deep breath as she closed her eyes and calmed her heart, the screams dying down as her heart calmed. With another shaky breath, she slowly moved out of Kiba's arm, leaving his jacket behind as she walked out of the cabin, Akamaru hot on her heels while Tinktink followed as well. The moon was nowhere to be seen as the stars sparkled across the sky but Meng Ka had no problem making her way away from the cabin as she followed Tinktink who lighted the way.

After a few moments, she sat down and let the tears fall as she felt like her heart was being ripped into pieces. A hundred times she has had that dream, almost every night of her life. But they have never been so real before, so hot, so vivid. It was almost as if she were there, in the past, watching her village and family be killed. Meng Ka wrapped her arms around herself as she rested her head on her knees, letting the tears roll down her cheeks and onto the ground. It was hard to breath as her chest seemed to be collapsing in on itself and she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to force the feeling to go away. What was happening to her? Why was everything being so weird lately? Even colors seemed strange to her at times.

She felt the warm fur of Akamaru as he pressed up against her and stuck his head in the small gap between her face and her legs, licking at the tears. She couldn't help but chuckle slightly as she looked down at the dogs big wet eyes and his small tongue hanging out and flapping everywhere. She lifted her head and hugged Akamaru, kissing him on the nose, "What would I do without you, Akamaru?" She said softly as he barked back, his tail wagging. Tinktink puffed out her chest and chirped irritably as Meng Ka smiled over at her and pulled her into a hug as well.

"Got room for another?" A familiar voice asked as he dropped his jacket back onto her shoulders and sat next to her. "You know you really should get something warmer for the winter, it is almost fall you know." He said as he smiled down at Akamaru and ruffled the fur on his head before looking up at Meng Ka.

"I don't really notice the cold because of Tinktink." She said as she wiped the tears from her cheeks and shrugged but pulled Kiba's jacket closer to herself with her free hand. "I'm sorry-"

"Don't be." Kiba said as he looked away and tossed a rock. "I guess you just really gave us all a scare that night. The whole village pitched in to fix your room, even the Hokage put in some of her own money to help." Chewing on his bottom lip with his fang he sighed and shook his head. "We thought someone had killed you, tried to burn you alive when we heard the screams and saw the flames." Looking up at her, he wrapped an arm around her and hugged her, "You're practically family, Meng Ka. I guess that's just why I've been acting strange lately. The thought of losing you is like…well…" Kiba trailed off as he thought about it, not really knowing how to put it into words.

"Like losing your sister?" Meng Ka suggested as she looked up at him with a small smile on her face.

Kiba chuckled and nodded his head, "Yeah, something like that." He smiled back and pushed her slightly with his shoulder, gaining a chuckle from Meng Ka as well. "Come on, let's go back and get some rest before the sun pokes its head out." He stood up and helped Meng Ka up, Tinktink and Akamaru following the two back to the cabin and by morning they were fast asleep once again as if nothing had even happened.

This time, Sazanami was the first to wake and as he grabbed his sword and sat up, he winced from the pain of his wounds. "What are you doing, old man?" Naruto asked as he opened his eyes and looked over at him, the others wake up as well as they all looked him over.

He suddenly drew his sword but Naruto jumped up and pushed it back. "Just rest quietly."

They struggled a bit as Naruto tried to get him to lie back down, "Stay away from me. Gosunkugi is mine!" He said through clinched teeth.

"What can you do in that condition, wanted man?" Naruto asked as he glared up at him. Sazanami looked up shocked as Kiba held up the flyer. "A man from the bar attacked last night." That seemed to calm him down a little as he stopped putting up a fight and his shoulders sagged. "Why is a bounty hunting a bounty?"

Sazanami glared at Naruto, "It's none of your concern." He then tried to get back up but fell back down as he ripped the wound in his arm back open.

"Your wound again." Hinata said as she walked over to him to fix it but Sazanami pushed her away.

"Hey!" Meng Ka got up quickly and moved in front of Hinata. "The way I see it, you'd best corporate with us. Your wounds are pretty bad and if we wanted to collect your bounty then we would have handed you over by now. So sit still." She said lowly to him at the end with a glare as he glared back but then looked away with a sigh and moved his hand from his wound. Meng Ka then helped Hinata re-patch the wound.

"I didn't do it," He said suddenly.

"Then how do you explain the flyer?" Naruto asked, crossing his arms.

"That Gosunkugi did it." Said angrily then sighed, "I'd best explain the story then. I was on my way to deliver a sword a customer had ordered. I wanted to participate in the festival so I was in a hurry. At that very moment, I heard a scream and coming up to the house the door was half open for some reason. And as I walked in, there he was, attacking me but then he ran away. I let him run as I walked up to the house, checking on the family but I was too late, they were dead. I told everyone what had happened but no one would believe me. It's because I was the only one who hadn't shown up to the festival. Also the particular way the sword had stabbed through the family, a sword smith should be able to make any kind of weapon, that was their reason. So I ran and ever since I wandered aimlessly from town to town looking for Gosunkugi so I could clear me name and return to my village." His voice trailed off just as Hinata had finished.

"So that's why we were in the way, huh?" Kiba asked as he looked up at him.

"The only to prove my innocence is to capture him myself," Sazanami said with a glazed look still on his eyes. "I want to go home." He said quietly as he looked up at them. "Will you let me?"

It was silent among the five of them as they stared at each other but Naruto was the first to speak, "We are ninja. We carry out missions that we receive no matter what. Even if the worst was to happen, we can't let him get away." He then got up and walked to the door, "Let's go."

The rest of them got up and followed him out as well, walking down the rocky path. "Was that smart, Naruto?" Kiba asked from beside him.

"That Gosunkugi jerk." Naruto said through clinched teeth. "We have to capture him no matter what. And if that old man pushes himself too far in his condition, not only would he fail in capturing Gosunkugi but he could get killed as well."

They continued to walk and soon came to the next post. "It seems like everything is in this station. "Hinata said as they looked around at the thriving town.

Naruto sighed, "It really is nothing but temples around here." Looking up ahead he pointed a large temple and the bell that was being dragged up to it, "Hey, Hinata, what is that bell?"

"That was created as the sightseeing crown jewel," She replied, "to recruit people to live in their temple. The golden bell."

Kiba snorted, "It's just like its saying, please steal me."

Meng Ka suddenly stopped and then smiled, "You're a genus Kiba." She said as she kissed him on the cheek, making him blush. "Gosunkugi is after the bell." She said excitedly.

"Gah! You didn't have to kiss me." Kiba mumbled as he rubbed his cheek and looked away from Meng Ka.

"I see!" Naruto said as he looked around, "It's perfect for the taking too." They nodded to each other and continued to walk, looking around for any signs that may lead them to their bounty.

Akamaru suddenly sniffed at the air and growled a little as Kiba sniffed at what he was sniffing, "Naruto." He called as he turned and looked at the whole in a wall, beyond it were houses that were completely destroyed. They quickly went to go inspect the place but were stopped by four men. "You guys are Gosunkugi's men!" Naruto said as he glared at them.

Looking with her eyes Hinata saw something coming quickly at them, "Quickly, jump" She called out as all of them jumped in the air but then Sazanami came out and deflected the daggers. "Old man!" Naruto called out to him.

"Leave me to this." He said as one of the guys attacked him. The five of them made quick work of the men since they outnumbered them now. But as they stabbed them they suddenly disappeared and that's when they realized that they were nothing more than shadow clones. Then looking up at the bell, Meng Ka pointed, "Look, there they are!"

"We'll get them for sure this time!" Naruto called out as the five of them ran after them. But as they make it up there, the bell was gone and the men were killed, "That Gosunkugi jerk."

As they ran after the bell, the same four mean appeared before them once again. "Hey, where is Gosunkugi?" Naruto asked angrily as they all looked at the men.

"Naruto!" Kiba called out, "He'll get away if we are too slow."

"We don't have time for this." Naruto said frustrated, "We'll have to take care of them in one shot." Once again they made quick work of the four men and this time they stayed were they landed on the ground. "Where is Gosunkugi?"

Suddenly Akamaru barked out to them and then started to run in a certain direction. They came to a river were the bell was being dropped onto a boat with Gosunkugi on it. "He's ours!" Naruto called and jumped on the rope that carried the bell, Kiba quickly behind him with Hinata not too far behind. Meng Ka looked up at Tinktink, "You think they need help?" She asked not really wanting to fight but Tinktink fluffed up her feathers and chirped sharply. Sighing Meng Ka jumped down to the river.

Gosunkugi suddenly spat nails at them and Naruto blocked it with a few of his shadow clones but then he threw more nails at them and as he was blocking the nails, the rope was cut through and they fell into the water. Only Gosunkugi landed in the boat with the bell and as he started to get away, Sazanami threw a rope onto the bell and as Gosunkugi was laughing he jumped up onto the boat and cut through his weapon. But before he could kill him, Gosunkugi held out his hands, "Wait! Don't be hasty." He suddenly flinched away as Sazanami's sword came down next to his head.

"If I kill you, the one who can prove my innocence will be gone." Sazanami said with a smile just as Meng Ka jumped onto the boat.

"You know Tinktink," She said as she sat on the bell, "I'm too lazy to be a ninja." She smiled as Tinktink tilted her head to the side and then shook her head rapidly.

Suddenly chained wrapped around Sazanami and the bell, trapping him against it, looking up Meng Ka groaned and rolled her eyes as she saw the man who had attacked them last night. "Bounty Sazanami, otherwise known as Tokichi. I, Gatsu, have captured you. And you as well, Gosunkugi. You're spree of evil is over." As he continued to make his speech Meng Ka looked up at him with a very judging look as she wondered how this man was so stupid. But there was nothing they could do since he had the police with him.

They followed him as they took Sazanami back to his village, wondering what would happen to him now. As they were angrily shouting at him, the guy from before banged his metal clobber on the ground, silencing them. "How could you charge this man without a proper investigation?!" He said as he crumbled up the flyer.

The head of the police held up a flyer with Gosunkugi's picture on it, "This is the man who killed the family in this village. This man has already been captured and confessed to the murders. Therefore this man, Tokichi, shall be acquitted."

As they untied Sazanami, they apologized and continued to do so as he stood up. Meng Ka smiled and looked over at the other's. "Let's go?" She asked and they nodded their heads.

"I've gotten a bit homesick and miss the leaf village." Naruto laughed as they walked through the stone village.

"But you know a failed mission means failure." Kiba said, "The fifth Hokage is going to scold up good, Naruto."

"No me." Meng Ka said with a bright smile, "After all, my mission was to get ya'll back alive." She laughed as Kiba pushed her slightly and rolled his eyes.

Naruto suddenly stopped and frowned, "I…don't wunna go back" he said quietly as the three of them laughed and pulled him along the path.

As they made it back to the village Genma who was watching the gate called out to her. "Meng Ka, you back." He smiled and gave her a light hug. "I just wanted to let you know that Kakashi had to go out on a mission. He shouldn't be too long though."

Meng Ka frown and sighed, "You know, I'm gunna have to see about maybe getting him fired. That way he won't be leaving all the time." She smiled up at Genma as he laughed and Kiba put his hand on Meng Ka's head.

"You can stay with us until he comes back." He said as Akamaru barked happily. "Mother won't mind and I'm sure if you're nice enough she'll make you your favorite." He winked down at Meng Ka as she nodded her head.

"Sounds great." She said and then gave Genma another hug before telling him goodbye and following Kiba home, only to be greeted by yelling and scolding for coming in the house so dirty and tracking in mud.


	13. Chapter 13

**Damn, I'm on a pretty good role. Two chapters in two days, not bad, just ignored HW. XD So let me know what you think and like always I really do hope ya'll enjoy it.**

The morning sun was just starting to rise over the tree tops as Meng Ka picked at the berries aimlessly as her mind wonder to Kakashi. He had been on missions consistently for the past few weeks and she hadn't even been able to see him one time between the missions. Uncle Shi usually slipped in late at night and then was called back to the Hokage's office and sent on yet another mission. Biting her lip, Meng Ka looked down at her baskets that were over flowing with berries. With a stretch, she got and yawned slightly, having not been getting much sleep because of her nightmares. Ever since her first nightmare, strange things have always been happening and Meng Ka didn't know how to handle them. Just the other day she had made a pot of jam explode by accident as her mind had wondered off back to her nightmares.

Sighing, Meng Ka rubbed her temples, annoyed that she was losing control over her own chakra so easily. It wasn't like her, she always had a tight control over her chakra but now it was like there was a leak and she couldn't find it. Meng Ka shook her head and bent down to pick up a basket when she felt another presence nearby and she stood up slowly, looking through the trees for the source. "You might as well just come out since I know you're here."

Kabuto walked out from behind a tree with a big smile on his face, "Hello Meng Ka. I'm glad to see that you are well." He pushed his glasses up slightly as he looked over at her and her berries.

"What do you want Kabuto?" Meng Ka asked as she crossed her arms and frowned, "It mustn't be that important since you sent your shadow clone and didn't come yourself."

Kabuto raised an eyebrow at her and chuckled, "I really would love to know how you can tell the difference. It is rather fascinating."

Rolling her eyes, Meng Ka glared at Kabuto, "If you're just here to make small talk I'd suggest you go ahead and poof into thin air cause I'm not interested."

Kabuto clicked his tongue, "Now Meng Ka, didn't Kakashi ever teach you to respect your elders. That temper of yours has been getting the best of you as of late I hear."

"Well in that case, you should watch what you say or I just might lose my temper." Meng Ka smiled mockingly at him.

His smile only widens, "I would love to see how strong you have become, Meng Ka. Orochimaru has been searching for you for years. What luck that he should stumble upon you here in his old village."

"More like a pain." Meng Ka mumbled.

Kabuto chuckled and looked around, "Where is your companion. I thought the two of you were inseparable."

Raising an eyebrow, Meng Ka smirked, "We may be separated physically but mentally we never are."

Kabuto looked back at her, "Well, I just wanted to let you know that Sasuka is taking to our treatment with great promise. Soon we'll have him come for you Meng Ka, after all, you can't kill a friend."

Meng Ka pressed her lips together, "Why come tell me this, Kabuto? I don't have time for your mind games."

Kabuto smiled and put his hands on his hips, "Who said I was playing mind tricks. After all, Orochimaru knows you'll come to him just as Sasuke did. You'll just be a little harder to convince."

"Well, seeing as that all I am to you is a lab rat waiting to have its secrets discovered. Yeah, I'd say it'll take a lot of convincing." Meng Ka as Tinktink let out a cry from up above them.

Looking up at the sky, Kabuto watched as Tinktink landed on Meng Ka's shoulder, "Hmm, that may be so but we only want to bring out your power and make you more powerful then you'd ever dreamed. After all with power you could bring honor back to your village and can start it back up once again."

Meng Ka balled her hands into fist as she glared over at Kabuto, "My village never lost their honor, even in death."

Kabuto then frowned, "That's what you think, I see the third Hokage didn't tell you much about where you came from." He then pulled out a small book from his shirt and tossed it to her. It landed at her feet with a soft thud as it kicked up dirt. "Here, how about you read the facts before you make assumptions." He then smiled slightly, "I'll see you again, Meng Ka." Then he folded his hands and suddenly disappeared, leaving only the book behind.

Looking down at the book that was at her feet, Meng Ka bent down and picked it up. The cover was made out of hard leather that was a light brown. Thick string bound the book together and the title was written in a strange language with a feather ablaze burned into the leather was underneath the title. Tinktink shifted on her shoulder and chirped softly. Shaking her head, Meng Ka lifted the baskets with her chakra and headed back to her home.

Once inside, she tossed the book on the couch and went to work on her jam. Making jam had always relaxed her and today was no different as she forgot about everything and concentrated on keeping the jam from burning. Today she even decided to make a pie and placed it on the window to cool down, hoping that maybe Kakashi would come home today. As she was ready to leave there was a knock on her door and without waiting for her to answer, Izumo, Kotetsu and Hayama walked in.

"Meng Ka!" Izumo and Kotetsu yelled as he rushed at Meng Ka and pulled her into a hug.

"We haven't seen you in forever!" Kotetsu said as they let her go.

"Why have you been such a hermit lately?" Izumo asked, ruffling her hair.

"I haven't been a hermit." Meng Ka said, "Have I?" She then asked with a guilty look on her face, it was true, she hadn't seen much of anyone lately.

The two laughed, "Hey, Kotetsu you know there's something he we haven't done in a long time." Izumo said with a smile.

"Oh, yes, you're right she does owe us after all." Kotetsu said smiling back as the two of them looked at Meng Ka. Meng Ka looked at them confused until they attacked her and started to tickle her. She laughed and wrestled with them as they continued to tickle her but soon it turned into a full blown wrestling match as the three of them laughed and struggled to be the victor.

Hayama then cleared his throat, stopping them just as Meng Ka had Kotetsu in a head lock and Izumo was messing up Meng Ka's hair. "We need to go. The fifth Hokage has asked for you Meng Ka."

Meng Ka frowned, "You can't just come and visit like normal people huh?" She pouted but then smiled and gave Hayama a hug who just stood there a bit awkward, never having been the feeling type. "It's still good to see you though, Hayama." Meng Ka then turned to the other two, "How long do you think we can get away with making her wait?" She asked with a devilish smile on her face.

Izumo laughed while Kotetsu shook his head and the two of them stood up. "Come on, kid. The faster you see her, the faster you can hang out with us at the gate." Izumo said as they walked her out of the house.

"Why would she send so many high ranked ninja though?" Meng Ka asked curiously as she walked between Izumo and Kotetsu, Hayama walking in front of them.

Kotetsu shrugged, "Maybe she thought you'd be difficult since you two aren't on best terms after all."

Meng Ka blushed slightly from embarrassment, "Everyone knows about that huh?"

Izumo smiled and placed his hand on her shoulder, "Some of the villagers are pretty upset with the way you acted towards our Hokage but if I were in your place I would have done the same thing on that mission. After all, Sasuke left on his own and it wasn't worth risking the lives of so many young ninjas who make up this village's future."

Kotetsu nodded in agreement, "I might not have yelled at the Hokage like you did but I would have been more concerned with keeping the young ninja's safe than run after someone who left the village on their own. The Hokage could have waited for some of us to return before sending out people to go after him."

"Perhaps she thought it best to go after him while we still knew where he was." Hayama spoke up from in front of them; he then stopped and turned to look at Meng Ka. "I don't agree with Izumo or Kotetsu since it was a mission that should have been easy for you to carry out." He then kneeled in front of her to become eye level, "But, she shouldn't have put you in that situation in the first place. I am glad that she took your rank from you; you are too young to have to carry such a high rank on your shoulders. You two might not see eye to eye but just give it time, you'll understand her actions one day." He smiled slightly at her and then stood up and continued walking. Meng Ka took hold of Kotetsu's and Izumo's hands as they followed after him, swinging Meng Ka between them.

"What do you mean by monitoring Akamaru?" Meng Ka asked as she stood in the Hokage's office, Tsunade and Shizune across from her in the room.

"You know about the incident where someone from outside infiltrated the village, right?" Tsunade asked as the two of them glared at each other.

"Yeah, Kiba told me all about it." She crossed her arms, "But Kiba said that they resolved the incident without any trouble."

"That's right." Tsunade nodded her head, "To be exact, that's wrong."

"What?" Meng Ka asked a confused look coming over her features.

"Before Kiba and the others had the intruder in custody, he swallowed a pellet and killed himself." Tsunade said calmly. "In the investigated that followed it was revealed that the enemy was a Shinobi from another land that uses a unique tactic. Perhaps he took his own life in order to seal that power."

"What is that unique power?" Meng Ka asked, getting a bit worried now.

"Something you would call a biological weapon." Tsunade said as she sat back in her chair. "It's a particular pathogen, a terrible weapon where someone infected will gradually lose oneself and have their body taken over."

"But then what does this have to do with Akamaru?" Meng Ka asked, "You don't think he got infected?"

Tsunade nodded her head and Meng Ka bit her lip, "There's possibility he's infected."

"Does Kiba know? Are you working on a cure?" Meng Ka asked quickly, becoming concerned for her friends.

Tsunade sighed, "No and you are not to tell Kiba about it either. As for a cure, we are trying and hope to come up with one before it's too late if Akamaru is in fact infected."

Biting down on her tongue, Meng Ka turned and headed for the door, "Please don't tell Kiba, it will only make things harder in the end Meng Ka. I asked you to do this because I know the two of you are close friends and you would be more help than anyone else."

With a nod, Meng Ka left the room and walked outside and Tinktink landed softly on her shoulder. Now all she had to do was find Kiba and she knew where he would be. Walking into up the dirt path she spotted the four of them training, well Shino and Hinata were training while Kiba sat in beside Akamaru who had a leg wrapped up. Smiling Meng Ka walked up to them and waved as Hinata waved back. "You aren't training?" Meng Ka asked as she stood next to Hinata in front of the two of them, Tinktink landed on the ground beside Akamaru.

"No, Akamaru still isn't feeling well enough to train so I'm just going to skip." He said a bit distracted as he got up and walked away, not even saying hello or goodbye to them. Akamaru whimpered and followed after him. Suddenly though Shino's bugs started to attack Akamaru who barked and fell to the ground. "Shino! What are you doing?" Kiba asked both angry and worriedly as he bent over Akamaru and started to brush the bugs off, "Call them off!"

Shino ran over to them and quickly folded his hands and tried to call them back but they were listening. He did it a second time with no luck and so Meng Ka interfered. She quickly sent out a pulse of Chakra towards the bugs sending them into a daze as she lifted them off of Akamaru with the air and back to Shino.

"I'm sorry; they weren't listening to me for some reason." Shino said as he looked down at Akamaru.

Meng Ka bent over Akamaru and ran her hand over him with her healing chakra checking to make sure he was alright and he was but there was something strange as well, something that was off but Meng Ka couldn't put her finger on it. Biting her lip she didn't say anything as she refused to believe that Akamaru was infected.

"Geez, give me a break." Kiba said annoyed as he picked up Akamaru, "We'll head back early then. See ya." He said as he turned around and walked away.

"I hope Akamaru gets better soon." Hinata said and Meng Ka nodded her agreement. Waving goodbye to them as well, she followed Kiba figuring she'd keep away a little since it seemed like he didn't want much company at the moment.

Akamaru mumbled a bark as Kiba stopped and looked down at him, "What is it?" He asked softly and then looked up in the tree that Meng Ka was standing in.

Meng Ka smiled guilty as she jumped from the tree. "What are you doing Meng Ka?" Kiba asked confused.

"Well…" Meng Ka trailed off as she blushed a little, "I was just worried and you didn't seem like you wanted company so I decided to just follow you." She looked down at her feet as she spoke and Tinktink chirped softly beside her.

A shocked look came over Kiba's face but then he smiled softly, "I didn't mean to come off that way Meng Ka. I just have a lot on my mind." He looked along the path and then back to Meng Ka, "You can walk with us if you want." Smiling Meng Ka walked with them back to the village, once there Kiba excused himself and they parted ways.

Meng Ka reported back to Tsunade and after hearing that they were no closer to a cure she stormed out of the hokage's office and then went to go find Kiba again, the sun was setting when she walked up to his home and saw Akamaru sleeping outside in the sunlight. Smiling softly she watched him sleep peacefully. She walked up to him quietly and ran her fingers through his fur, there just had to be a cure, Akamaru was still so young. Akamaru woke up a bit dazed as he lifted his head and looked up at her and Tinktink. Meng Ka smiled at him and reached out to pet him but he suddenly growled and jumped at her with a bark. Meng Ka's air barrier blocked him from attacking her and he fell back to the ground with a whimper. Worried, Meng Ka reached out to him, "Akamaru?" She asked as she was about to touch him but he suddenly lifted his head and bit her right on the wrist with a growl.

Meng Ka flinched slightly as his small fangs sank into her skin but she didn't move as she watched Akamaru worried about the way he was behaving. Suddenly Kiba and Hana came running out the door. "Akamaru?!" Kiba yelled as he saw him biting Meng Ka. "It's only Meng Ka. Why are you biting her?" He asked as he walked up to them. "Let her go, Akamaru." He said but Akamaru didn't stop. "Akamaru!" Kiba yelled and this time Akamaru stopped growling and slowly let Meng Ka go and whimpered as he sat on the ground in front of her.

Meng Ka reached out with a soft smile and petted his head, "It's alright Akamaru, glad to have you back." She said softly as Kiba came over and lifted her other hand, inspecting her wrist.

"Are you alright Meng Ka?" He asked as he looked over her wrist.

"I'm fine." Meng Ka smiled up at him as he frowned back. Akamaru suddenly got up and ran away with a whimper and Kiba looked over at Tinktink, "Do you think you can keep him company? Something tells me he doesn't want mine at the moment." Tinktink chirped and flew after Akamaru. Then Kiba looked back at her, "Come on in, we'll take care of your wound."

Meng Ka smiled and followed them in and sat at the table while Hana took care of her wound, which was a very easy heal since Akamaru didn't bit hard enough to cut through any veins. "Why didn't you tell me?" Meng Ka asked after Hana was done wrapping her wrist.

Kiba pressed his lips together and continued to look down at the table with hard eyes, "I didn't want to worry you. It's isn't your responsibility it's mine." He said as he looked slightly up at her, "How did you find out?"

"Tsunade asked me to keep an eye on Akamaru." Meng Ka said truthfully, "But you should have told me Kiba, I could help Hana find a cure. Two minds are better than one after all."

Kiba sighed and shook his head, "Like I told you, I didn't want to worry you. We can handle this, Meng Ka."

"But she can help," Hana said as she came in with tea and sat down three cups, "After all, she was my best student and between the two of us we should have a cure in no time."

Meng Ka smiled and nodded her head, taking the hot cup of tea and sipping. Kiba looked over at Meng Ka and frowned, "Are you sure?"

"Did you seriously just asked that Kiba?" Meng Ka asked as she smiled over at him, "If Tinktink were in Akamaru's position I'd do anything to help her. Don't expect anything less from me when Akamaru is concerned."

Kiba smiled over at her and Hana sipped her tea, "Well, looks like Kiba's going to sleeping on the couch again."

"What?!" Kiba asked as Meng Ka and Hana laughed.

Meng Ka stretched out on the bed as she rolled over, hitting something hard. With a groan she pushed and kicked it off the bed and rolled over, hugging the pillow. Kiba landed on the floor with a soft thud and a groan of his own as he sat up rubbing his head, "Oi Meng Ka! What's the big idea, pushing me off my own bed?" He said irritated and poked her side, making her wiggle and push him away mumbling something.

He frowned and walked out of the room then came back with a bucket of water. Lifting it in the air he let the water fall on top of Meng Ka with a smile on his face. Meng Ka shot up in bed with a small yelp and then glared up at him, "What the hell, Kiba?! I was sleeping!"

"You pushed me out of bed!" Kiba said as he put the bucket down.

Meng Ka pouted and crossed her arms, "I was sleeping, you can't blame me for something I did while sleeping."

"Yes I can." Kiba said smirking and flicked her nose, "I just did."

Meng Ka was about to say something else when suddenly Kiba sniffed at the air and turned his head, a frown forming on his lips. "What is it?" Meng Ka asked as she got out of bed.

Without saying anything Kiba walked out of the room and towards the living room where Akamaru sleeps. Sitting down next to him he sniffed at him again and gently put his paw in his hand. His shoulders slumped forward as his frown deepened and his eyes glazed over as he became lost in thought. Sitting down next to him, Meng Ka ran his fingers through Akamaru's fur as he laid there asleep. Tinktink chirped softly as she flew in the opened window and stood on the table next to Akamaru.

After a while of not saying anything, Hana rushes in. "Kiba, we have trouble."

"I know." Kiba said suddenly as he kept looking down at Akamaru, "I can smell the blood on him."

"So he was the one who attacked the shinobi while training last night…"Hana's voice trailed off as she looked down at Kiba with a said look in her eyes.

Meng Ka suddenly stood up tense as three Anbu Black Ops showed up in the room. One of them held up a piece of paper, "We have orders from the Hokage to take Akamru into custody."

"Over my dead body you are!" Meng Ka said angrily as she moved to get in front of Akamaru but Hana held her back.

"You can't take him!" Kiba said just as angrily if not more and was going to attack them but once again Hana held him down just like she did Meng Ka. Tinktink chirped and flapped her wings softly as she hopped over to Meng Ka on the table, trying to get her to calm down.

Without saying anything else the three of them put Akamaru in the dog cage they brought along and then went away. Once they were out of site, Hana let the two of them go. Meng Ka took in a deep breath before looking over at Kiba who stood there shaking from furry as his eyes remained closed and he didn't dare move. Hana directed Meng Ka back to the room where they had spent all night looking for a cure but having no such luck. They quietly went back to work with even more determination than before.

"Come on Kiba, I know you want to visit Akamaru. We don't have a cure but we at least have something that we hope will delay the effects." Meng Ka said as she came out of the room with a bag of the medicine.

Kiba looked up from the couch and nodded his head as he went and got changed. They walked outside quietly, neither one of them saying anything as they made their way to the vets where Akamaru was taken to be looked after.

"The Medical Corps will figure something out soon." The man at the front desk said as he bid them farewell. "Take care on your way home."

"Right…" Kiba said as he turned and left, Meng Ka waving the guy goodbye and then following after him. Kiba lifted the bag and held it close to him as Akamaru started to whimper.

"I don't like this Kiba. What if more people get hurt?" Meng Ka asked as she looked around and stayed close to Kiba.

"I told you to leave, Meng Ka. I didn't want to get you involved in this." Kiba said as he continued to walk, "You can still leave and tell my sister if you want but that won't change anything."

Meng Ka sighed and shook her head, "No, I told you I would help you and should anything happen I think it best that I tag along to be there to help."

Akamaru growled as he lay on the grown shaking as the infection started to take more control over him and he turned a dark red color. Meng Ka ran her hand over him, trying her best to push the infection back with her chakra but it didn't seem to be helping that much. "He's getting worse, Kiba. I can't do anything else."

Kiba pressed his lips in a tight line as he looked down at Akamaru, "There has to be something!"

Suddenly they heard voices in the forest around them, "Where are they? They should be around here."

Meng Ka and Kiba quickly took off again with Akamaru in Kiba's jacket as they ran through the forest. "I swore to protect him no matter what." Kiba said angrily as they ran. "I swore I'd never let him go through the experience ever again."

Meng Ka didn't have to ask, she knew Kiba was talking about the time that they went after Sasuke and were split up. He had a rough time fighting on his own and both of them had nearly died. Akamaru was hurt very badly and it took them days before they were well enough to leave the hospital. They continued to run throughout the day and by night fall they were able to get away from the search parties. Breathing heavily they crossed a shallow river to throw off their scent. Suddenly Akamaru jumped from Kiba's jacket and began to growl until he was huge, taller than the two of them combinded.

"Akamaru…" Kiba said sadly as he looked up at Akamaru who let out a howl.

Suddenly three wolves jumped inbetween them and Akamaru. Looking back, they saw Hana standing behind them. "Kiba! Meng Ka! Step back!"

"Sis!" Kiba said suddenly.

"You've got to be joking right?" Meng Ka asked, "You're the pursuit corps?"

"What are you going to do with Akamaru?" Kiba asked still looking at her in shock.

"This medicine I received from the Hokage." She said as she held up the tube. "I'm going to inject it into Akamaru."

"So then they found a cure?" Meng Ka asked, "Then Akamaru will be alright?" She could hardly believe it; it was too good to be true.

"The probability is fifty-fifty." Hana said with a determined look on her face, "If it fails, and side-effects are produced, Akamaru's symptoms will get even worse. All we can do now is take a chance on this. If the worse happens and it fails… You understand, Kiba, right?"

"Damn it…" Kiba mumbled as he looked away from his sister.

"But Kiba," Meng Ka said quickly, "There's still a chance that Akamaru will be cured. We have to take it! I'll help you get close, Hana."

Hana nodded towards Meng Ka and then looked over at Kiba, "What about you Kiba? If you aren't going to help then you're in the way, so beat it!"

Tinktink took off in the air as Meng Ka folded her hands, making a few shadow clones appear before looking back at Kiba, "Kiba?"

"Just leave that coward be, Meng Ka." Hana said, "You're ready, right? Let's go!" She said as she ran ahead of them and giving Kiba one last look she raced ahead. "Aim for the legs, immobilize Akamaru."

"Alright!" Meng Ka said as her shadow clones raced forward and distracted him long enough so that the three wolves were able to knock him down. Tinktink turned sharply in the air and cut across his face, blinding him for a few seconds as Meng Ka and her clones landed on top of him and held him down. Hana ran towards his exposed neck but just as she reached him he regained eyesight once again and knocked her out of the way while throwing Meng Ka and her clones off of him. The medicine fell from Hana's hands and landed in front of Kiba.

"Since it's come to this, I have no choice." Hana said suddenly "I must terminate Akamaru."

"Stop!" Kiba suddenly yelled from where he was standing. "I said stop…Akamaru."

"Kiba…" Meng Ka said quietly as she looked back at him.

Kiba then started to walk towards Akamaru, "Akamaru? Have you forgotten my scent?" he asked as he continued to walk. "We were always together from when we were little, weren't we? Akamaru, why did you become like this?" He asked as he stopped right in front of him, Akamaru growling lowly at him. "Please remember, Akamaru!" He yelled and Akamaru jumped in the air, ready to attack him. "I'm sorry, Akamaru. All I did was put you through painful experiences. I couldn't protect you." Akamaru suddenly landed on top of Kiba with a bang and dirt flew up in the air making it hard to see what happened. Hana and Meng Ka called out to Kiba as they stood up and looked through the dirt floating in the air.

Kiba opened his eyes slowly as he looked around the hospital room. "It really would have been touch and go if the medical corps had been even a little late in arriving. He would have lost his life if Akamaru's attack had hit Kiba's vital organs. Really it could have been much worse." Tsunade finished saying as Meng Ka crossed her arms and shook her head.

"You're wrong." Kiba said suddenly.

"Kiba!" Meng Ka said happily as he looked over at him.

"When he came down on me with his final attack." Kiba continued as he looked up at the ceiling. "Akamaru just barely missed my vital spots. He drained all of his remaining strength in order to desperately control himself. He was battling desperately with himself."

"Which saved us all in the end." Meng Ka said with a smile as she gently picked up Akamaru and brought him over to Kiba, resting him on his chest. Kiba gently wrapped an arm around him and smiled as Akamaru remained peacefully asleep.

With a sigh, Meng Ka pushed open the door later that night. It had been a long two days and she was happy to be back in her room and her own bed. As she closed the door and looked up she saw Kakashi tossing the last piece of her pie into his mouth as he sat on the island in their kitchen. He licked his fingers and looked over at Meng Ka with a smile, "Thanks for the pie, kiddo."

Meng Ka chuckled and ran up to him, giving him a hug as he lifted her up on his lap. "It's been so long since I last saw you Uncle Shi."

Kakashi hugged her tight, "I know but you seemed to be rather busy without me anyways." He said as he lifted the book that Kabuto had given her just days ago.

"Oh!" Meng Ka took it from him as she ran her hand over the letterings, "I almost forgot about this."

"How did you come by it?" Kakashi asked as he picked up a class of milk and downed it.

"Kabuto's clone paid me a visit and gave it to me." Meng Ka said without really thinking as she flipped through the book.

Milk came shooting back out of Kakashi's mouth as the class broke in his hand, "Kabuto?! How did his clone get so far into the village?!" He asked concerned as he stood up, letting Meng Ka jump from his lap and walked over to the window, looking out. "He didn't hurt you did he?"

"No, he didn't come near me. He only played mind tricks; it's all he's good at anyways." Meng Ka shrugged and sat back down on the stool looking through the book. The more she looked at the writing the more it seemed to make sense to her. "He tossed me this book and told me my time was almost up basically."

"You didn't tell the Hokage did you?" Kakashi asked as he came over and cleaned up his milk mess. Meng Ka shook her head and looked up at Kakashi as he sighed, "Meng Ka, you need to tell the Hokage about these things. She needs to know when the enemy is so far behind the border."

Meng Ka shrugged, "It's not like it's her business. It was only his clone and I dealt with it. At the moment they are only concerned about Sasuka."

Kakashi put his hand over hers on the book and rubbed the back of her with his thumb, "What are you hiding Meng Ka?" He asked softly as he searched her eyes with his one.

Meng Ka bit down on her bottom lip as she looked away. "I think I need to leave too." She said softly.

"What?" Kakashi asked alarmed, "What do you mean 'leave'? Meng Ka where will you go?"

"Back to my old village." Meng Ka said looking up, "May I can find answers there."

"Meng Ka, your village is nothing but ash. I saw it myself when you were younger." Kakashi shook his head.

"Maybe to you but to me, maybe I'll see something that was over looked." Meng Ka said hopefully, "Please, Uncle Shi. I need to do this. There aren't any answers to my questions here and if I remain here terrible things are bound to happen. If there are any signs of trouble I'll come right back."

Kakashi remained silent as he finished cleaning up his mess, picking up the glass slowly as he was lost in thought, thinking back to the day that he was handed Meng Ka and told that he was going to be her guardian. How was he supposed to protect her when she wanted to go home in search for answers that he didn't have. He remembered the times when she would wake up crying and he would rack her back to sleep, so simple those days. The times she a huge smile would come across her face in delight as she had mastered yet another jutsu. Those days when he knew that she would be home waiting for him to return after a mission. She was such a little girl then and still was but the darkness that always hung over her head seemed a bit darker now as she became older. He couldn't tell her no, after all she would go wither he wanted her to or not. He knew that look she was giving him, her eyes hard and set, her mouth pressed in a thin line. She had already made up her mind a long time ago.

Sighing, Kakashi walked back over to her and ruffled her hair, "I wish I could go with you but this is something you need to do on your own, Meng Ka."

Meng Ka smiled brightly at him and pulled him into a tight hug, "I'll miss you so much, Uncle Shi."

"When do you wish to leave?" Kakashi said sadden as he hugged her back.

"Tomorrow morning." Meng Ka said with a determined look as she smiled up at Kakashi.


End file.
